Brand New
by Kev9885
Summary: After finding out her boyfriend has cheated on her, Rinoa moves to Balamb where she meets Squall and Co. a group of high school rebels. She befriends them and soon finds her life changing. For better or worse? she doesn't know.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Rinoa sighed as she pushed open the main doors of West Deling High School, pushing her glasses back up her nose as she made her way down the stairs to the road before turning left and heading for home.

As she made her way down the road she passed numerous students all standing around in their groups, chatting loudly among themselves. From what she could hear as she walked past was that a lot of them were glad that the first day of the school year was over and a few of them were now making plans for the upcoming weekend.

Rinoa just stared straight ahead as she continued walking, trying her best to block out as much of the chatter as she could. She didn't have anyone to hang out with, not at this school anyway. She had left all of her friends behind when her mum had decided to relocate from East Deling a bit over a year ago.

The reason her mum had decided to relocate was because of the death of Rinoa's dad eighteen months ago. Her dad had been a high ranking officer in the Galbadian Army and had been well liked and respected by a lot of his fellow soldiers.

He had been away on a fishing trip at Obel Lake in Timber with a few of his army buddies and had been on the way home when the car they had been travelling in had been been hit by a semi driving in the opposite direction, killing them all on impact. It had later been revealed that the truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and had veered onto the wrong side of the road, resulting in the accident.

Rinoa had been absolutely devastated when she had found out about what had happened and had been near inconsolable. Luckily she had a good group of friends who had been there for her, none more so than her boyfriend, Matt, and her best friend, Patricia.

A few months after the funeral her mum had made the decision to relocate to a cheaper part of the city. The reason for this was because they couldn't afford to live where they were on her mums income and were slowly falling behind with their bills.

Rinoa had hated the idea of moving away from her friends, but knew of the situation they were facing and understood why they had to move. Also it wasn't like she couldn't see her friends over the weekends, since she was only moving to the other side of the city.

She had found the idea of going to a new school a little scary, but had also looked at it as an opportunity to meet new people and make some new friends. Boy had she been wrong.

Her first day at West Deling High had been nothing short of hell for her. She had been abused, both verbally and physically. She had been called every name under the sun and generally hated by every student at the school, especially the preppy students, who had made her their main target. She had eventually found out that the people living in the western suburbs had a strong hatred for people living in the wealthier eastern suburbs. She had never dared ask why this was the case, not that she needed to considering someone only needed to walk the streets to realize it was a bad area.

The western suburbs, unlike the more affluent east side of the city, which was full of tree lined boulevards with two story houses down every street, was one of the poorer areas of the city. Drugs and a higher crime rate made it an undesirable area and it was well known among the city's resident as somewhere you avoided unless you had a reason to go there. Rinoa hated living in the area but knew that her and her mum had no choice.

Rinoa was brought out of her thoughts by some rather annoying high pitched chit chat behind her, the type that sounded like the person talking was screeching.

She turned her head slightly to glance behind her and immediately turned her head back to the front, wishing she had resisted the urge to see who the voices belonged to.

Walking about a meter behind her were Molly Jenkins, the head cheerleader, along with three of her fellow cheerleaders, Rebecca Smith, Natasha Dunn and Felicity Bradshaw. Not only were these girls popular they were also a few of the many people that deliberately went out of their way to make Rinoa's life a living hell every day.

The four girls had stopped talking as soon as they had noticed Rinoa looking at them and were now paying full attention to her.

"What are you looking at four eyes?" One of the girls, Molly to be exact, demanded.

Rinoa didn't say anything as she clutched her dads wedding ring, which hung from a necklace around her neck, and quickened her pace slightly in an attempt to get away.

She spotted the small alleyway leading to her street just up ahead and ducked into it, waiting until she was halfway down it before slowing down. She looked behind her to see if she had been followed, which thankfully she hadn't been.

'Thank god for that,' Rinoa thought as she turned back round and continued down the alleyway.

She turned right once she got to the end and made her way down the street, stopping two blocks down in front of a small two bedroom brick home that her and her mum had lived in since they'd moved. The house wasn't very big, but it was enough for the two of them.

Rinoa sighed as she noticed her mums car parked next to her beat up old Pulsar. Her and her mum got along great and she loved her dearly, but she had a habit of fawning over her, which Rinoa found annoying and embarrassing.

Letting her bag drop from her shoulder, Rinoa made her way across the front yard, pushing the front door open and entering the house.

"I'm home," she yelled out as she kicked the door closed behind her.

"Hey Sweetie, can you come into the kitchen please," Her mum called back.

"Great, now what," Rinoa muttered as she slowly made her way down the hall towards the kitchen, not really wanting to have to sit through one of her mums talks right now.

She entered the kitchen to see her mum sitting at the bench in the middle of the room, reading a magazine over a cup of coffee. Rinoa dropped her bag by the doorway, the noise getting her mums attention.

"Hey honey, can you sit down please."

'Uh-oh, this can't be good,' Rinoa thought. The last time she had heard those words was when her dad had died.

Without a word she sat down at the bench next to her mum, watching as she closed the magazine and finished her coffee before turning to face her.

"So, what's up?" Rinoa asked nervously.

She watched as her mum looked at the floor, took a deep breath then looked back up at her, worry written all over her face.

"Mum, what's wrong?"

"Okay," Julia said, taking in another deep breath before continuing, "I'm not sure how you're going to react to this so please don't get angry with me."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry sweetie, but we have to leave Deling."

"What?" Rinoa asked, not sure whether she had heard her mum properly or not.

"I got offered a job overseas, which means we have to leave Deling," Julia repeated said slowly.

'Oh my god she got accepted,' Rinoa thought as she clapped her hands together and pulled her mum into a big hug.

After they had relocated to the western suburbs, her mum had enrolled in a nursing course, deciding that she wanted to do something different with her life after nearly two decades of being a lounge singer.

She had completed the course a month ago and had immediately applied for positions all over the world.

"Okay, not the reaction I was expecting," Julia chuckled as she returned the hug.

"Sorry, it's just that I'm so happy for you. You worked your butt off to get that course done."

"But what about you sweetie? What about all of the new friends you've made since being here?"

'Oh crap,' Rinoa thought, the smile fading from her face. She had never told her mum how bad school really was. She'd always made out that things were going fine just to keep her mum happy and to ensure that she wouldn't feel guilty about it, which she no doubt would.

'Well no time like the present,' she thought as she took in a deep breath.

"Mum, to be completely honest with you, I never made any new friends. No matter how much i tried no one wanted to know me."

"But sweetie, what about all the things you told me about what you and your friends get up to?" Julia asked, shocked at what she was being told.

"I said all of those things so you wouldn't feel guilty about it and start blaming yourself."

"Oh honey, you should've told me about it," Julia said as she pulled Rinoa into a hug.

"Yeah, well i don't have to worry about it anymore," Rinoa replied, returning the hug.

"So where we moving too," Rinoa asked as she pulled away from her mum, curious as to where they were moving too.

"Well, out of all the jobs I applied for, the only reply I got back was from the ones I applied for in Balamb."

"Yes!" Rinoa exclaimed in excitement. She had always liked Balamb and had planned to one day visit, but never in her wildest dreams did she ever think that she would get the chance to live there.

"Where abouts in Balamb is it mum?" Rinoa asked, barely able to contain her excitement.

"The capital, I got offered another position in one of the rural towns but figured you'd rather the city over a small town," Julia replied before adding, "I take it your happy about the move?"

"Hell yes! I'm going to go pack," Rinoa announced as she made her way out of the kitchen.

"Okay, We can only take one checked bag and one carry on bag on the plane tomorrow, so just pack what you can and box the rest, the removalists will take it with them when they come to pick our stuff up tomorrow," Julia yelled after her.

"Okay mum," Rinoa called back.

Rinoa entered her room and dropped her bag on the floor before throwing herself on her bed. She lay spread-eagle on her bed as what her mum had told her finally started to sink in.

'Yes! I finally get to leave this shit hole,' Rinoa thought as she rolled off her bed and went over to her built in wardrobe.

She slid open the door and searched through it for a few minutes until she found what she was looking for, her big black suitcase. She grabbed a hold of it and was about to pull it out when she suddenly stopped, a feeling of realization coming over her.

She let go of the suitcase and clapped a hand over her mouth. In all of the excitement she had forgotten about all of the friends she still had at her old school, Matt and Patricia in particular.

She couldn't help but wonder what their reaction to this was going to be. No doubt they would be upset about it, but then again nothing would really be changing, apart from the fact that she wouldn't be seeing them as much as she was now.

Rinoa didn't know how she was going to tell them. Her first thought had been through email or Facebook, but then decided against it. This wasn't really something you told someone over the computer, or the phone for that matter. She needed to tell them face to face, which would involve having to make a trip to her old school on the other side of the city, which she wasn't sure she would have time to do.

Exiting the room, she headed back to the kitchen to ask her mum if it was okay for her to go see them before they left.

"Hey mum, is it okay if I go and see Matt and Patricia tomorrow?" Rinoa asked as she entered the kitchen, seeing her mum still sitting at the counter.

"I guess so, just as long as you're fully packed tonight, and you need to be back by three so we can organize for your car to be sold."

"Thanks mum," Rinoa replied as she ran back down the hallway.

Running back into her room, she pulled the suitcase out of the wardrobe and lay it on the bed.

She then went back to her wardrobe and grabbed every drawer and emptied them onto her bed, then gathered all of the stuff that was hung up and threw them on the bed as well.

'Okay, blue denim jeans, keep. Old worn out t-shirt, dump,' she said to herself as she started going through her clothing, creating two separate piles on the floor.

* * *

Nearly an hour later Rinoa placed the last piece of clothing she was keeping into her suitcase and sat on it in attempt to flatten it a bit so she could do it up.

After successfully doing it up she dragged it off the bed and placed it next to the door. Next she grabbed her school bag and emptied it, proceeding to pack her toiletries and makeup kit in the bag, along with a few personal effects like photo's and a couple of her favourite books so she would have something to do on the flight before putting it on the floor next to her suitcase.

She piled the rest of her clothing into two separate plastic bags, one for stuff she wasn't keeping and the other for stuff she wasn't sure about., figuring she could always go through it again when she got to Balamb.

Tying both bags up she placed the stuff she wasn't sure about next to her bag while throwing the other one over her shoulder and heading down the hallway to the laundry, placing it with other stuff that needed to be taken to lifeline.

Rinoa thought over what she had done so far, deciding that she was all done before heading down the hall to the lounge room.

She flopped onto the couch and started flipping through the channels, looking for anything that would spark her interest. When she couldn't find anything she settled on a documentary about the worlds biggest man made machines, deciding it would do for now.

She watched this for about ten minutes before her mum came into the room and sat in the recliner next to the couch.

"All packed darling?" Julia asked as she grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels, settling on a soap opera that had just started, one that Rinoa didn't actually mind watching every now and again.

"Yep," Rinoa replied as she stifled a yawn.

"That's good, now the removalist will be here at nine o'clock in the morning, so don't be surprised to find the house empty when you get back. Also we have to be at the airport by six for our nine o'clock departure."

"Okay Mum," Rinoa replied as she settled in to watch TV.

An hour later Julia went to get some pizza and they sat in silence watching TV as they ate.

As Rinoa ate thoughts started circling in her head about her new home. What was it like? What were the kids like? She pushed the thoughts aside, telling herself that she would just have to wait and see.

She looked down at the last three pieces and nearly gagged at the thought of trying to eat them. She closed the box and got up from the couch, making her way out of the room and into the kitchen before putting the pizza box in the fridge.

She looked at the clock, seeing that it was just after eight. Even though it was still early she actually felt quite tired and decided that an early night would be good.

"I'm off to bed mum," Rinoa said as she poked her head pack into the lounge room.

"Okay Sweetie, good night,"

"Night mum," Rinoa said before making her way down to her room.

She entered her room, grabbing her pajamas from under her pillow, which consisted of a pair of light blue satin boxer shorts and a plain white t-shirt.

She then exited the room and headed across the hall to the bathroom. She quickly got changed and brushed her teeth before making her way back to her bedroom.

She jumped into bed and pulled the sheet up around her chin before letting her body relax.

She suddenly felt extremely wired about tomorrow. She couldn't believe how much her luck had changed since school had ended that afternoon.

'No more bullying. No more Molly Jenkins and her fellow cheerleaders giving me a hard time,' Rinoa thought to herself, a smile spreading across her face.

Closing her eyes, she rolled onto her side and snuggled into her pillow. Despite having all the thoughts about tomorrow going through her head, she found herself drifting off to sleep in a matter of minutes.

* * *

A/N: So What did you guys think.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Rinoa jolted up in bed as her alarm blared loudly, the noise sounding like it was bouncing off the walls.

Groaning, she reached over and grabbed her phone, pushing the sleep button before slamming it back down on her bedside table and snuggling back into her pillow.

She wasn't a morning person, and hated getting up this early. All she wanted to do was stay in bed but knew that if she wanted to catch up with her friends before school started she would have to get up now.

Groaning into her pillow she kicked the sheet off her bed and got to her feet. Rinoa yawned loudly as she stretched, her body shaking as she did so. She then grabbed the clothes she had put aside while packing yesterday and exited the room, heading for the bathroom.

She went to the shower and turned the taps on, checking the water temperature with her fingers to make sure it was just right before stripping off and hopping in.

Rinoa stood under the hot water for a few minutes, allowing the water to run over her body in an attempt to wake herself up. She then washed her hair and body before rinsing off and hopping out.

She quickly got dressed into her blue denim jeans and light blue skivvy before exiting the bathroom and heading back to her room.

She grabbed her hair brush from her bag and ran it through her hair before tying it into a high ponytail. Placing her brush back in her bag, she grabbed her glasses and put them on before looking in the mirror one last time. Deciding she looked okay how she was she grabbed her wallet and phone, shoving them in her pockets before exiting the room.

Rinoa made her way into the kitchen and went straight to the fridge, pulling out the leftover pizza from last night.

She grabbed some paper towel and placed it in the microwave before placing the three slices of pizza on top. She turned the microwave on and watched as they went round and round until they had finished heating up.

Grabbing both sides of the paper towel, Rinoa carefully transferred the pizza to the bench top, where she let them sit for a few minutes to cool off before grabbing one of the slices and shoving it in her mouth.

She checked her watch as she finished the first one and cursed, realizing she was running out of time to do what she had to do this morning. Wrapping the other two pieces up in the paper towel, she grabbed her keys off the bench before making her way to the front door.

Rinoa exited the house, a cool autumn breeze whipping past her as she made her way to her car. Climbing in, she started the engine before eating the rest of her breakfast as she waited for the engine to warm up, something she had been told to do before driving anywhere.

She waited until the temp gauge needle rose just above the bottom line before putting the car in reverse and carefully backing out onto the road. After avoiding hitting any early morning joggers and safely making it onto the road, she put the car in drive and took off down the road in the direction of the motorway.

* * *

Rinoa indicated as she exited the motorway, making her way through the wide tree lined streets of her old suburb before arriving at her old school, St Patricks College, one of Deling City's most prestigious schools.

She parked in the first space she could find and turned the car off. Checking her watch as she got out, she noticed that she still had about fifteen minutes until school started for the day.

'They should be arriving right about now too,' Rinoa thought as she locked the car and made her way towards the main entrance.

She pushed open the doors, memories flooding back as she walked through the crowds of students past the administration area and down the hall towards the locker area, a path she had taken every school day for three years before moving.

People were barely paying her any attention as they went about getting ready for the mornings classes, which was fine by her as she didn't feel like attracting much attention this morning.

Rinoa turned left into the senior locker area, and started making her way down the hall before hearing an all too familiar scream.

Next thing she knew was someone slamming into her from behind and wrapping their arms around her. Rinoa tensed up at first, but relaxed as soon as she smelt the familiar perfume. It was none other than her best friend, Patricia.

"Oh my god Rinoa! What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be at school?" Patricia squealed as she hugged Rinoa tightly.

"I thought I'd come see you guys, haven't seen you for a few weeks," Rinoa replied as she returned the hug, a smile spreading across her face as she embraced the girl.

Rinoa ended the hug and pulled away, looking Patricia over.

She had known Patricia since the first day of primary school, and they had been near inseparable since. Patricia had long blonde hair that went half-way down her back and blue eyes that sparkled like sapphires when the sunlight touched them.

She was half a head taller than Rinoa and had a body like a model. Patricia was gorgeous and she knew it, quite often using her looks and her body to get what she wanted. There had been a rumour going around the school before Rinoa had moved about Patricia sleeping with one of her teachers to get a pass on an assignment. Rinoa didn't know whether it was true or not, and never pursued it to find out. She had more respect for Patricia than that and didn't want to risk losing a good friend over a rumour.

"Your lying aren't you?" Patricia said as she observed Rinoa, noticing she wasn't her usual chirpy self whenever she came to see her.

It was at that moment that the floodgates opened and Rinoa burst into tears as she held Patricia close. She had told herself that moving wasn't going to be such a big deal, but coming here had put everything into perspective. The fact that she wasn't going to be able to see her best friend for ages made her heartache. They had been like sisters growing up, and it had been hard just moving down the road to Terrence, but this was a whole different kettle of fish.

"Aw Honey," Patricia said in a comforting tone, stroking Rinoa's hair as she returned the hug, "Do you want to go someone so we can talk?"

"Please... Can you also call Matt...get him to meet up with us...it involves him too," Rinoa managed between sobs as she let go of Patricia.

Rinoa looked at Patricia, noticing her hesitate for a second. It also looked like she wanted to say something, but had obviously decided not to. Rinoa brushed it aside as nothing, not really wanting to deal with any more crap right now.

She watched as Patricia opened her phone and started texting before closing it again.

"Alright, lets get out of here," Patricia said as she grabbed Rinoa's hand and they made their way towards the exit, careful not to run into any teachers on their way out.

* * *

"So you're leaving Deling?" Patricia asked as she took a sip from her milkshake.

After sneaking out of the school they had made their way to Jaks Cafe, a little eatery a couple of blocks from the school. It was quite popular among students, and it was a place Rinoa and her friends had frequented every Friday afternoon after school to celebrate the weekend.

"Yeah, I mean I'm happy to be leaving the place, but I hate the fact that I'm not going to be able to see you guys as often," Rinoa replied, taking a bite from her sandwich.

"Yeah I know, but maybe it's for the best," Patricia replied, taking a bite out of her muffin.

"What do you mean Tee?" Rinoa asked, unsure of what her friend was getting at.

"Don't worry about it, forget I said anything," Patricia said a little too quickly for Rinoa's liking.

'What the hell? Patricia's never been like this with me, something must be up for her to be acting like this.'

Rinoa was about to open her mouth to say something when she saw Patricia look down the street behind her.

"Matt's coming," she said as she sipped her drink, not once looking Rinoa in the eyes.

'Why on earth is she acting like that?' Rinoa asked herself as she turned around to look down the street, her mouth falling open in shock.

Waiting at the traffic lights across the road was Matt, his wavy blonde hair full of gel as usual, and standing beside him was a petite, rather large chested red-head, one of her arms wrapped around Matt's muscular body as they waited to cross the road.

Rinoa looked him over as she searched his deep blue eyes for any sign of emotion, finding none whatsoever. He didn't even smile at her.

'No...how could he? It's only been three weeks since I last saw him. How could he do this to me? Rinoa asked herself as she turned back to Patricia, seeing an apologetic look on her face.

"You knew?! Rinoa exclaimed.

"I only found out three days ago. I wanted to tell you but Matt said he wanted to be the one to do it. I'm sorry I shouldn't have listened to him," Patricia apologized, tears streaming down her face as her eyes pleaded for forgiveness.

"It's okay, I don't blame you, you're not the one that's done wrong by me," Rinoa said as she grabbed Patricia's hands and squeezed them, "besides we've been friends for way too long for me to hate you over this.

"Thanks sweetie," Patricia replied, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"You wanted to see me?" Matt asked rudely from behind Rinoa.

Rinoa sighed as she let go of Patricia's hands. She could feel the anger building up inside of her and was about to turn around and blow her top at him but stopped when she felt her hand being squeezed. She looked over to Patricia, seeing her with a comforting smile on her face, letting her know that she was there for her. Rinoa felt the anger inside of her subside a little, and took a deep breath before turning to face Matt.

"I did...but I can see that you're occupied at the moment...so you can go away now," Rinoa replied, struggling to form a sentence as she tried desperately to keep her cool.

"No, you came all this way to drag me out of class, so you can say whatever you have to say Rinoa!" Matt demanded, sounding rather annoyed.

'Bet i interrupted his make out session with Bimbo,' Rinoa thought to herself, barely holding back a chuckle as she did.

"Fine," Rinoa snapped, taking in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down before continuing, "I came here this morning because I thought you'd be interested to know that I'm moving overseas. But I guess not considering you've already found yourself a replacement. Funny thing is I didn't think you were into Bimbo's Matthew."

"At least I have some assets bitch! Unlike you, no wonder he left you," the redhead giggled.

Rinoa watched as Matt laughed along with her. This was not the Matt that she fallen in love with. She didn't know who the guy was in front of her.

"So how long has this been going on for Matt? What the fuck does she have that I don't!?"

Matt shrugged, "Besides the fact that she gives me sex and actually has something I can play with, nothing."

"I see, so because my tits weren't big enough for your liking and I wouldn't give you sex, you decided to get a bit behind my back?!" Rinoa yelled, getting the attention of a few people in the cafe.

"What do you expect me to do when you haven't given me sex once in the two years we've been together? You expect me to sit around and wait when i have girls crawling all over me? I have needs that need to be fulfilled, and you weren't doing it so I found someone who would. I'm sorry it turned out this way, I really am!" Matt yelled back, earning the attention of the entire cafe.

"Bullshit!"

"What?"

Rinoa groaned as she ran her hand through her hair, she was getting very irritated and didn't know how long it would be before she lost it. This wasn't how she expected the morning to go. How could Matt do this to her after everything.

"I said that's bullshit Matthew!. You've just proved that you never cared about me once during our time together. That everything you ever told me was a lie. All you ever cared about was getting your dick wet. Well I can happily say that I'm glad I never let you into my pants you lowlife piece of shit!" Rinoa screamed as she got to her feet and stormed away from the cafe.

"Rinoa, wait!" She heard Matt call out behind her.

"Fuck off Matt, I don't want to hear it!"

Behind her she could hear Patricia ripping into him. She felt betrayed and alone right now, and was glad to have someone on her side.

She continued walking until she reached the park down the road and headed for the swings. Flopping onto one of the seats she buried her head in her hands, doing the one thing she had been hoping not to do again today, cry.

She heard footsteps coming towards her and felt someone wrap their arms around her and kiss her head.

"You okay? You lost it a bit back there?" Patricia asked as she pulled Rinoa into a tight hug.

Rinoa knew Patricia was right, and wished that she had controlled her temper a bit better back at the cafe. she usually didn't swear, only doing it when someone had pissed her off like Matt had done.

It also didn't help that she was what some people would consider raw. This meant that she wore her heart on her sleeve, and if there was something she wanted to do or say she usually did or said it.

"I'm sorry Tee," Rinoa said, groaning as she wiped tears away from her face, "he just pisses me off so much. What did I do to deserve this?" she asked as she buried her head into Patricia's shoulder.

"You didn't do anything sweetie, he's just a jerk," Patricia replied as she stroked Rinoa's hair.

"Am I not pretty enough?"

Patricia let go of Rinoa and knelt down in front of her, placing her hands on both sides of her face.

"Your beautiful, okay. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Matt's a dick for not seeing what he had."

Rinoa nodded and looked down at the ground, but Patricia wouldn't let her as she tilted her head upwards so she could look her in the eyes.

"Rinoa, take this move as an opportunity to meet new people and make new friends."

Rinoa scoffed. She'd heard this before she had moved to the west, and look how that had turned out.

"Now I know how West Deling turned out, and I admit that I was wrong about that place, but I have a feeling that Balamb is going to be different for you. So I want you to make some new friends and forget about everything else. Matt, Deling, everything. The next time I see you, I want to see a huge smile from ear to ear, okay"

Rinoa nodded, "You know we won't be able to see each other for a while, or as often."

"I know, that's why we're going to make today count," Patricia said with a huge smile on her face, earning a small giggle from Rinoa.

"That's the Rinoa I like to see, now how about we blow this popsicle stand and go have some fun," Patricia said as she pulled Rinoa to her feet.

"Okay," Rinoa replied as they linked arms and made their way away from the park.

The rest of the day was full of fun, Patricia made sure of it. They went to see a movie then grabbed some lunch before sitting around and chatting about the old days, reminiscing all the good times they had when they were younger.

When it came time for Rinoa to leave, it was a tear fest. Both girls cried in each others arms for what felt like ages.

After saying goodbye Rinoa made her way towards the motorway. As she drove onto the motorway she had this feeling that things were going to be different from now on. She didn't know whether it was a good or bad feeling but figured she'd find out soon enough.

"See ya later Tish, I'll see ya when I see ya," Rinoa said to herself as she took one last look in the rear vision mirror before turning her attention back to the road.

* * *

Rinoa watched as her car was hooked up to the tow trucks winch before the driver went round to the mechanism on the side of the truck and pulled the lever, retracting the cable and pulling the car onto the trucks tray.

They had rung up the local car wreckers an hour ago, and had been able to get rid of it for two hundred dollars. Rinoa didn't really care as she had never really liked the car and was just glad to be rid of it. The way she saw it, it was one less memory of this place that she would be taking with her.

She heard the drivers door of the rental car open and looked to see her mum climbing in before doing her seat belt up.

"Ready sweetie?"

"Sure am mum."

Julia just nodded as she stuck the key in the ignition and started the car up before backing out of the driveway.

As they made their way through the through the suburb she saw a lot of the kids from her school walking around in their groups doing whatever it was that they did with their time. A smile crept across her face as she knew that she would no longer have to deal with any of their crap anymore.

They made their way onto the motorway and Rinoa looked back, gazing over the hell hole that had been her home for a little over a year, feeling as if a big weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

'Good bye West Deling, and good riddance,' Rinoa thought to herself as she turned back round in her seat, looking out over the city in front of them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Rinoa smiled at the customs officer as her mum handed over their passports. The officer smiled back as she inserted each of their passports into the e-scanner one at a time, their information popping up on the screen as each one was scanned. The officer then checked their photos and typed in a few things before stamping both their passports and handing them back.

"Hope you enjoy your time in Balamb ladies," The officer said before waving the people behind them forward.

Rinoa followed her mum as they made their way through a long, winding hallway, which seemed to twist and turn every which way. Finally making it to the end, they found themselves in a large room with half a dozen x-ray machines on the far wall. They lined up, and before they knew it they were being called forward to have their bags scanned.

They put all of their bags onto the conveyor belt, and placed all of their personal belongings onto a blue tray before pushing it through as well.

Rinoa watched the screen the immigration officer was looking at, amazed at how detailed the picture was as their bags went through.

They were given the all clear and collected their bags and belongings before heading towards a large glass sliding door with 'Welcome to Balamb' above it.

They passed through the door and into the arrivals area. Rinoa stopped dead in her tracks, staring in amazement. The arrivals lounge was unlike any she had ever seen. Every other one she had seen had been quite plain and dull, but this one was completely different.

On three sides there were huge panes of glass that reached all the way up to the ceiling, even the roof was made of glass, which actually helped to light up the place. But what really topped it off was the view of the ocean that could be seen through the windows in front of her. Rinoa loved the ocean, whenever she looked at it she felt relaxed, and that all the worries she had in her life didn't exist, like she didn't have a worry in the world.

"Yes Missy, it's called the ocean, now can you please move so we can get through," someone said from behind her, bringing her out of her little daze.

Rinoa turned around to see roughly a dozen people lined up behind her waiting to get past.

'Oh shit, how embarrassing,' Rinoa thought to herself as she moved to one side to let everyone past, receiving glares from a few of them as they went past.

She looked around for her mum, noticing her a few meters away looking at her with a smirk on her face.

'Thanks mum,' Rinoa thought to herself as she made her way over to her, still feeling quite embarrassed.

"Is someone meeting us here, or do we have to find our own way to wherever were going?" Rinae asked as she plonked her suitcases on the ground, relieved to be able to put them down, even if it was only for a few seconds.

"Yeah, one of the nurses from the hospital is going to meet us and take us to the house we'll be living in," her mum said as she looked around the room, obviously searching for the person that was picking them up.

"Over there," her mum said as she pointed to a women holding a piece of paper with Heartilly written on it.

They grabbed their bags and headed over to the women.

"Hi I'm Julia Heartilly," her mum said as she held her hand out for the women.

"Hi Julia, I'm Raine Leonhart, and this is my son Squall," the woman said, shaking her hand before gesturing to a boy standing a few meters behind her.

Rinoa looked at the boy, liking what she was seeing. He had bluish, grey coloured eyes, shaggy brown hair and was tall, standing about five inches taller then her. he also looked like he worked out.

'No Rinoa, don't think like that, you just broke up with your boyfriend,' she scolded herself, focusing on a spot on the floor to avoid looking at him.

"Hi," Squall said, his voice making her want to melt into the floor.

'Good looking and has a sexy voice, Damn,' Rinoa thought as she looked up at him, trying her best not to get lost in his eyes.

"Hi," she said softly, giving him a small smile as she said it.

"Okay kids, before you two start yakking like teenagers usually do, shall we get out of here," Raine said, saving Rinoa from further embarrassing herself.

"Yeah I think we should," her mum said as she looked at her, a smile spreading across her face before her and Raine headed towards the exit. Rinoa bent down to pick up her suitcases, and felt something touch her hand. She looked down and saw Squall's hand touching hers.

"Sorry," he said as he pulled his hand away, "I was just going to carry your suitcases for you."

'Wow, a gentleman too,' Rinoa thought as she pulled her hand away from the suitcase handle.

"No it's okay, I don't mind if you do."

"Okay," he replied as he picked both her suitcases up, heading in the direction their mums had gone.

Rinoa watched as his arm muscles tensed as he carried her bags.

'Damn,' she thought to herself, 'yep, definately works out. Bet he's one of the popular ones. Probably plays football like Matt did.'

She shook the thoughts of Matt away as she caught up to Squall as he exited the terminal, not really wanting to think about him at the moment.

"Holy crap!" Rinoa nearly shrieked as a cold gust of wind whipped around her, sending goose bumps all over her body.

"You okay?" Squall asked as he stopped and looked at her.

"Yeah, I just didn't think it would be so cold here," she replied as she dropped her backpack and rummaged through it, pulling out a blue polar fleece jacket. She quickly pulled it on over the light hoodie she was wearing, zipping it up before picking her backpack up.

"Yeah, it doesn't usually get this cold just yet, the reason why it is so cold is because of the winds coming from Trabia," Squall explained as they headed across the carpark.

"But I thought with it being an island it wouldn't get cold? Don't you feel cold?" Rinoa asked, looking at the attire he was wearing.

Squall chuckled,"I'm wearing a long sleeved thermal top, I suggest you invest in a couple before winter hits," he said as he stopped beside a black BMW, placing her suitcase into the open boot before closing it.

They both climbed into the back, strapping them-selves in as Raine backed out of the park and they made their way through the car park towards the exit.

Rinoa didn't say anything else as she looked out the window as they drove towards the house her and her mother would live in. she saw young couples walking together along the waterfront, kids hanging out at a skate park and in front of different shops.

What she also noticed was how much beach there was. Rinoa watched as it stretched along the waterfront, seeming to go on forever. This was a place she could get used to.

She looked over at Squall, noticing he had his head down, looking at something. It took her a moment to realize that he was texting, and decided that it wasn't a good idea to pry into his personal life. She looked back to the front of the car, noticing her mum looking at her, a smile spread across her face as she saw how happy her daughter looked.

Ten minutes later they turned into a small street that curved to the right, pulling into a driveway a block down the road.

"Is this the place mum?" Rinoa asked as she looked out the window at the house in front of them. The house a split level home made out of timber. It was a plain white colour with a black roof and had a white picket fence that started from halfway down the rear of the house, obviously making up the backyard, and there was a small stone path that led to the front door.

"No, your place is next door," Raine said as she handed Julia a yellow envelop, "This contains the keys to your house, your new car and your roster for the fortnight."

"Thank you Raine," Julia said as she took the envelope, "Thank you for picking us up as well."

"Not a problem Julia, we were happy to help," Raine said before suddenly remembering something else, "Oh yes, Everything is set for Rinoa to start school tomorrow, All her uniforms and books are inside, she just has to go to the office when she gets to school."

"Thanks again Raine, you've been a big help. So are the local health service this helpful with all new employees?" Julia asked as she opened her door.

"Yes they sure are, they like to make every new employee as comfortable as possible, especially ones from overseas," Raine replied as they exited the car

Squall headed for the boot, popping it open before unloading the suitcases.

"Squall, you wanna help them carry their suitcases into their house," his mum asked as he shut the boot.

"Okay," he said as he picked up both of Rinoa's suitcases and followed Julia to the front door.

Rinoa on the other hand decided to explore the outside of the house before heading inside. She looked over the house, noticing that it was exactly the same as the one next door. She looked around the street, noticing that the one on the other side of Squall's place looked the same, as well as a few others up and down the street.

From what her mum had explained on the flight from Deling, a lot of the staff employed at the main hospital in Balamb City were either from the small rural towns dotted around the country or from overseas, so the local Health Service had put in place an accommodation scheme for its staff, providing every staff member and their family with a roof over there heads for a small portion of their pay every fortnight.

'Must all be owned by the hospital,' she concluded to herself as she made her way towards the fence beside the house, lifting the latch to the gate before walking through. The back yard was a reasonable size, with a pool down the far end of the yard next to a deck with a barbeque built into it. She walked up the stairs onto the deck. It was big enough to fit a fair few people on it, and it connected to what looked like the kitchen, which would be handy for a party or gathering.

Satisfied with the backyard she made her way back round to the front of the house and walked through the front door. She stepped into the house and looked around, noticing a set of stairs to her left and two rooms to her right. She headed to her right, stepping into what she assumed was the lounge room, judging by the single couch and the old crappy TV sitting on a crappy wooden stand.

'Suppose it only has to do until our stuff arrives,' she thought as she heard her mum call her from upstairs.

She hurried back into the entryway, seeing a set of stairs on her left halfway down the hall. She took the steps two at a time and made her way down the hall to the only door that was open.

She entered the room to see her mum unpacking her suitcase onto the bed.

"You called mum," Rinoa said as she sat down on the bed next to her mum.

"So what do you think?" her mother asked as she stopped unpacking and sat down beside her daughter.

"It's nice, but which room is mine?"

"Any other room you want sweetheart," her mum said as she smiled at her daughter.

"Yay," Rinoa said as she clapped her hands together and took off out of the room. She opened the door directly across the hall from her mums room and looked around. She didn't quite like this one so she opened the one next to it, then the next one after finding out the middle door on that side was the bathroom, but didn't quite like that one either. She opened the last door, leading into the room beside her mums room, and looked inside. It was a bit larger than the two across the hall, which suited her just fine considering the amount of stuff she had. She noticed that this room also had a queen size bed and a wooden chest of draws, along with a wooden nightstand next to the bed. She stood there for a moment, wondering why there would be furniture that wasn't theirs in the house.

"If you're wondering about the furniture, it's so you don't have to sleep on the floor till your stuff arrives. The local health service looks after its employees pretty well," a voice said from behind the open door.

Rinoa nearly shrieked until she realized who the voice belonged to. She closed the bedroom door, seeing Squall standing there with her luggage at his feet, a smirk plastered across his face

"Jeez you scared the crap out of me," Rinoa said as she glared at him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to."

"So how did you know I would pick this room?" she asked as she indicated to her bags.

"Because it's the biggest room, and I knew being a teenager you'd want the biggest room, don't worry I picked the same room at my house," he chuckled.

She was about to say something when a loud ding rang through-out the room and she watched as Squall pulled his phone out of his pocket.

He slid his fingers over the screen for a few seconds before shoving it back in his pocket.

"Well I'm off, it was nice meeting you Rinoa."

"Yeah you too," she said as he opened the door to leave.

Rinoa watched him go before flopping down onto the bed, all of a sudden feeling optimistic about being in Balamb. 'Maybe this move will turn out to be a good thing,' she thought to herself as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and flipped it open

On the screen was a message that said: Hey sweetie I hope you enjoyed your flight, what's it like there? Have you met anyone yet?

Rinoa smiled as she recognized the number as Patricia's. She quickly sent a text back and closed the phone. She looked around the room noticing how much dust was gathered around the room. She got off the bed, deciding that cleaning the room up would give her something to do until dinner time, and also something to do to escape boredom.

* * *

About an hour later Rinoa flopped onto her bed, finally feeling that she deserved to do so. Her entire room was spotless, not a single speck of dust insight.

She looked around the room again. She'd rearranged the layout of the room, placing her bed under the window with the bedside table beside it. She'd also moved the chest of draws, which was now crammed with as many of her clothes as it would fit, to the far wall, making a space for her computer when the rest of their stuff arrived.

'There's something missing,' she thought as she rubbed her chin, then clicked her fingers as she figured out what the room needed.

She reached into her backpack, pulling out three framed photographs. The first one she pulled out was of her dad in his dress uniform. It had been taken back when he had graduated from officers school, before he had met her mum and way before having a family had even crossed his mind.

Rinoa felt a tear roll down her cheek as she looked at the photo. Looking at the picture made her miss her dad a lot, even after all the time that had passes since his death.

She sighed as she placed the photo on the bedside table, wanting that one to be the first thing she saw when she woke up.

The second was of her parents, taken atop a small hill, with a younger Rinoa crouched down in front of them. That had been taken when she was fifteen, a few months before her sixteenth birthday. She loved this photo because it reminded her of the good times, before everything went downhill. Rinoa smiled at the picture as she placed it beside the other picture.

The third one was of her and Patricia from when they were younger, goofing around and playing in her room, huge smiles on each of their faces. She smiled as she remembered the fun times her and Patricia use to have, it was always either a sleepover or a movie night at either of their houses, which usually turned into a sleepover anyway. She wasn't sure of where to put this one so she just placed it next to the other two.

She turned her head as a knocking sound was heard from the door behind her. A moment later her mum poked her head into the room, smiling as she walked into the room, taking a seat next to her daughter.

"I like what you've done to the room," he mum said as she wrapped and arm around her shoulder, pulling Rinoa close.

"Thanks mum," Rinoa said as she snuggled into the crook of her mums neck.

"You want to go for a walk, see if we can find a place to eat in the area?"

"Yeah that sounds good," Rinoa replied as they both got of the bed before exiting the room and heading downstairs.

* * *

A/N - Another Chapter, Would like to know if its going too slow or not. Not really sure whether it is or not. What do you guys think?


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Rinoa looked at herself in the mirror as she finished buttoning up her blouse, feeling nervous about what today was going to bring. It was Thursday today, which meant it was her first day at her new school, which also happened to be just the first day of the school year here in Balamb. She found this to be a bit weird considering the school year in Galbadia always started on a Monday, not towards the end of the week. She also found the schooling system here a bit weird as well. Here they started school at the beginning of February and finished in December, while in Galbadia they started at the beginning of September and finished at the end of May.

Taking a deep breath, she looked herself over, feeling kind of awkward in what she was wearing. She wasn't accustomed to wearing a uniform as all schools in Galbadia were uniform free, and she found the idea of wearing a uniform a bit strange.

The uniform consisted of a blue, black and white plaid skirt that went to just above her knees, a short sleeved white blouse, a blue, black and white neck tie, knee high black socks and black leather shoes. this was the summer uniform and with the weather she had experienced over the last few days, also considering she woudn't be able to wear the winter uniform for another month, she could see herself getting cold in it.

Luckily she was able to grab the school polar fleece jacket while she was collecting her uniform yesterday, which was currently sitting in her bag just in case she needed it.

Deciding that she looked okay how she was, Rinoa grabbed her bag and exited her room, making her way downstairs.

Rinoa entered the kitchen to find a note on the bench with ten gil sitting on top of it. The note was from her mum, telling her that she had been called in early for her first shift and wouldn't be back until later this afternoon.

Shoving the money into her pocket, Rinoa made her way to the front door. She decided against having breakfast as she still felt nauseous and didn't want to risk throwing up her breakfast.

She opened the front door, the early morning sun feeling nice as it shined down on her.

'Here goes nothing,' Rinoa thought as she took a deep breath before starting her journey to school, which thankfully wasn't too far from home.

* * *

Squall rolled over in his bed, eyes jolting open as he felt open air beneath him. He desperately grasped at his sheets in an attempt to save himself, but failed as he hit the floor with a loud thud.

Groaning, he slowly got to his feet and ran his hand through his hair before glancing at the alarm clock sitting on his bedside table.

He groaned again as he saw what the time was. The school day started in less then ten minutes and he was standing in his room in only his boxer shorts with a bad case of bed hair.

Gathering his uniform from off his desk, White short sleeved business shirt, blue, black and white striped neck tie with a pair of blue denim jeans. The school did have pants that were supposed to be worn, but they weren't very popular among the male student population.

He pulled on a pair of white ankle socks and black converse before running his hands through his hair to flatten it before looking in the mirror. With an approving nod, he grabbed his backpack and made his way downstairs.

Grabbing his sunglasses of the kitchen bench, he slipped them on on his way to the front door. He didn't bother with saying good morning to his older sister, Ellone, who was standing in the kitchen, knowing that she would only grill him for sleeping in again.

He knew that she only cared about him, but it got on his nerves after copping the same lecture over and over again.

He exited the house, making his way over to his pride and joy, a fully souped up Nissan Skyline sedan, a present from his sister when he had gotten his license.

Jumping in, he gunned the engine and quickly reversed out of the driveway, not really bothering to watch out for anyone, before pulling up at the house next door and honking the horn.

He waited about a minute before the front door opened, his best friend Zell Dincht rushing out still dressing himself, his mum standing at the door yelling something at him that sounded like have a good day.

'Gotta love Ma Dincht,' Squall thought as Zell opened the passenger door and climbed in.

"Morning Bro," Zell said, stuffing the remnants of an energy bar into his mouth.

"Hey mate, ready for another day in hell?" Squall asked as he booted the accelerator.

"You know it," Zell replied as he stuck his arm out the window.

Squall chuckled at his friends antics, that was such a Zell thing to say.

Squall had known Zell his whole life. Both their dads had served in the Galbadian Army and their mums had co-owned a bar in Winhill, where both boys were born.

They had lived in Winhill for the first three years of their lives until their dads had been transferred to Timber, where they had lived their for two years until their dads had been killed during an attack on the Galbadian Embassy. The citizens of Timber, who had been under occupation by Galbadia for seventeen years, had finally had enough of being dictated and had attacked the embassy in an attempt to get their message across that Galbadia wasn't wanted.

After their deaths, their mums had decided a change of scenery would be good and had decided to relocate to the island nation of Balamb to give their children a better life

Growing up in Balamb had been hard, especially when you came from the most hated country in the world. The two boys would constantly get picked on for simply being who they were, Galbadians. Both boys had stuck up for each other on numerous occasions and forged an extremely strong friendship over the years, one that was still strong to this very day.

Squall watched as the school loomed ahead and slowed down, not really wanting to go to school today. He never really wanted to go, but knew that if he was caught wagging he wouldn't only cop it from the teachers but his mum as well.

"You right bro?"

"Yeah just don't really want to be here today," Squall replied as he turned into the student car park.

"I know the feeling man," Zell said as they pulled into the first available parking space.

"Here we go," Squall muttered as he pulled a crumpled old packet of Marlboro cigarettes out of the center console before hoping out of the car.

"You want one Bro?" he asked Zell as he pulled one out of the packet before offering him one.

"Nah, I'll grab one later. I'm gonna go see if I can catch up with the guys before classes start, I'll catch ya later," Zell replied as he took of into the school grounds.

"Later," Squall said as he shoved the cigarette into his mouth and lit it. He inhaled the smoke, holding it in his lungs for a few seconds before exhaling, watching as the smoke trailed off into the air as it escaped his mouth.

'Wonder what today will bring?' he asked himself as he took another drag from the cigarette, closing his eyes as he leaned back against the driver's door.

He opened his eyes and looked towards the school, silently cursing himself as he threw the smoke on the ground, stomping on it as he saw a teacher coming towards him.

He groaned as he realized who the teacher was, it was Mr Wallace, a prick of a teacher who seemed to have it in for Squall and his friends.

"Okay Mr Wallace, what are you going to dish up today," Squall mumbled to himself as he grabbed his bag out of the back seat, locking the car as he started walking towards Mr Wallace, bracing himself for the earful he knew was coming.

* * *

Rinoa sighed as she approached the school, feeling even more nervous then she had when she had left home.

As she walked into the school grounds, the first thing she noticed how different this school was to her old one. In Galbadia, all schools consisted of a single building, which contained all of the school facilities and classrooms. This one however, consisted of several buildings, spreading the classrooms and school facilities out across the grounds.

Finding the main office hadn't been hard, considering there were signs up all over the school showing the way to each block. She pushed open the glass door, seeing a middle aged lady with blonde hair sitting at the reception desk. She had a foul look plastered on her face as she typed away on her computer, and Rinoa guessed that she wasn't the nicest person to talk to.

She noticed a blonde boy with spikey hair and blue eyes sitting against the wall opposite the office lady, a half smile, half smirk spread across his face as he made paper planes out of a pile of pamphlets sitting on a small table beside him.

"Seifer Almasy, stop making paper planes with those pamphlets," The office lady pretty much screeched, her voice so high pitched that it made Rinoa wince.

She watched as the boy smirked at the office lady as he grabbed another pamphlet and proceeded to make another paper plane.

The office lady sighed and shook her head, "Why do I even bother," she muttered as she approached Rinoa, "Yes, how may I help you," she said in a snobby voice.

"Hi, I'm here to get my timetable," Rinoa replied.

"New girl I take it?" the lady asked as she sat down at her computer.

"Yeah," Rinoa asked as she heard the door behind her being pushed opened.

"Name?" the office lady asked, not even looking up from her computer

"Rinoa Heartilly," Rinoa replied as she turned slightly to see who had come through the door, catching a glimpse of a male teacher dragging a male student with shaggy brown hair into the office by his shirt.

"Aw come on Mr Wallace, I barely smoked any of it," she heard the male student growl as the teacher knocked on the door next to the blonde boy.

'That voice sounds familiar," Rinoa thought as she studied the boy from behind, trying to figure out where she had heard that voice before.

"Mr Kramer, caught Mister Leonhart smoking in the car park again," the teacher said as he dragged the boy into the office.

"Seriously Squall, when are you going to learn," a different voice said, which Rinoa presumed belonged to the principal. "Mister Almasy, you might as well come in too, since I have nothing better to do than deal with you two monkeys," the Principal said, prompting the blonde boy to get off his seat and walk into the room, the door closing behind him.

'Hold on a minute, wasn't my neighbours name Squall?' Rinoa thought before shrugging it off and turning her attention back to the office lady.

"Miss Heartilly, here is your schedule, and locker number," the office lady said, handing Rinoa her timetable, her locker number written underneath it. "Your locker has an electronic lock, you have to enter your four digit code into a keypad, which will unlock the locker. The number is on the back," the lady said as Rinoa flipped the piece of paper over, seeing that the number was in fact there, as well as a map of the school, which would be a great help to her.

"Classes are split into five hour long periods with a twenty minute morning tea break and a forty-five minute lunch break. Every Thursday we have assembly, which means there's no first period," the lady explained.

"Okay thank you," Rinoa said as she turned and exited the office in search of her locker. It didn't take her very long to find it, she punched in the four digit code written on the back of her timetable, an inner mechanism clicking as the door unlocked and swung open slightly. She piled her books and bag into it and closed the door, heading off in search of the assembly hall.

She found the assembly hall a few minutes later, making her way through one of the side doors. She quickly found a seat down the front among the student body, unsure of where her year group was actually supposed to sit, but she guessed that it probably didn't matter as long as she was there. A few minutes passed before a short tubby man wearing a pair of grey trousers, a white long sleeve button up shirt and a red knitted vest stepped onto the stage at the front of the hall. She took a stab at guessing this was the school principal, Mr Kramer.

"Alright everyone," he said, speaking into the microphone set up in front of him, "Anyone who hasn't shut up by the time I finish speaking will be in detention this afternoon."

Rinoa watched and listened as the hall went deadly silent, so silent that you would be able to hear a pin drop. Rinoa was amazed at how effective Mr Kramer's threat had been, if one of the teachers had done that at her old school, half the hall would still be gas bagging.

She sat their staring into space as the Mr Kramer went over the days notices, only half listening as he droned on. She was about to fall asleep when a girl from across the room rose her hand, trying to get the principals attention.

"Excuse me sir," the girl said as she put her hand up, cutting the principal off in the middle of his speech, ""I'm getting harassed by the boy next to me."

"Irvine Kinneas, I should have known it would be one of you lot," he said, letting out a sigh as he looked at the girl again, "Ms Solomon, how is he harassing you?"

"He wants to show me his tattoo," She said as Rinoa saw her point at a boy with long auburn coloured hair tied in a loose ponytail, watching as the girl gave him a disgusted look, to which the he seemed unfazed by.

"Mr Kinneas, come up the front, NOW!" Mr Kramer barked, pointing at the spot next to him where he wanted the boy to stand.

Rinoa watched with amazement as the boy casually got up, a smirk creeping across his face as he dawdled up to the stage, all eyes were on him as he climbed onto the stage, standing next to Mr Kramer.

"Right boy, since you want Ms Solomon to see your tattoo so badly, why don't you show the whole assembly, that way everyone gets to see how pathetic it is," Mr Kramer barked, gesturing towards the student body in front of them.

"I don't think many people will like it sir, it's quite offensive," Irvine advised the man beside him. Any other student would've thought he was trying to weasel his way out of it, but Rinoa could tell by the tone of voice he was using that he didn't care that he had to do it and that he was just doing it to get a reaction out of the man next to him.

"I gave you an instruction boy, now you bloody well do it," Mr Kramer bellowed, his face going red as he did so, his tone indicating that it was non-negotiable.

"You'll be sorry," a voice rang out from among the student body, Rinoa looked over towards where Irvine had been sitting, noticing the blonde boy from the office sitting next to an empty seat where she assumed Irvine had been seated, he didn't look too keen for him to show off his tattoo.

"No Irvine, please for god's sake, don't do it, you're gonna scar me for life," the boy sitting next to the blonde yelled out, which Rinoa instantly recognized as Squall.

"You two shut the fuck up," Mr Kramer bellowed, pointing a finger at the two boys before turning to Irvine, "I gave you an order Kinneas, now do it!" he demanded, shoving his index finger into Irvine's chest.

Rinoa watched as Irvine simply shrugged before reaching down and undoing his pants before dropping them to the ground. The whole hall erupted in laughter as Irvine proceeded to pull his dick out in front of them, which was fully covered in a tattoo that made it look like a snake, turning to face Mr Kramer as he did so.

"Look out sir, it's gonna eat ya!" One of the boys yelled out, causing another wave of laughter to erupt from the students.

Rinoa couldn't believe what she had just witnessed, and on her first day too. She watched as Irvine jiggled his hips in front of the principal as Mr Kramer's face went all different shades of red.

She joined in the laughter as the students started clapping, and watched as Irvine took a bow, his pants still around his ankles.

'Maybe this school won't be that bad after all,' she thought to herself as she continued laughing and clapping.

* * *

A/N - The ending of this chapter was inspired from a scene out of the fanfic called The Balamb Chronicles by Ally Todd, which is no longer up on this site. What did you guys think of this chapter?


	5. Chapter 5

A/N - Just letting you guys know that I went through and changed a few minor details in the story. Nothing major so there isn't any need to go and re-read the story again.

**Chapter Five**

Soon Assembly was over and the three boys were dragged away to the office to face their punishment. Rinoa made her way back to her locker, trying to retrace her steps as best she could.

She finally found it and swung the door open, grabbing the books she needed for the next two lessons before closing the door. Turning around she took two steps before she was knocked to the ground, her books flying everywhere as she hit the ground.

"I'm so sorry, I Should've been watching where I was going," The girl she had bumped into said as she quickly got to her feet and offered Rinoa a hand up.

'Yeah, maybe you should've,' Rinoa thought as she brushed herself off and grabbed the girls hand, looking up as she did so, her jaw dropping as she recognized the person she had bumped into.

It was none other than her old friend Selphie.

"Selphie?" Rinoa asked as she got to her feet.

The girl looked at her funny for a few seconds before a look of recognition came over her.

"Rinny?"

"Rinoa nodded, bracing herself as Selphie threw her arms around her.

"Oh my god, I can't believe you're here."

Rinoa had met Selphie three years ago when Selphie had done a twelve month exchange program with her school. They had both become really good friends and they had been shattered when Selphie had to go home. They had exchanged details and kept in touch for a while, but communication between the two had eventually gone quiet.

"I didn't know you were here, I thought you still lived in Trabia. How long have you been here for?" Rinoa asked as she returned the hug, squeezing Selphie tightly.

"My parents moved us here nearly two years ago, I was going to tell you but I lost all of your details."

"I'm sorry, I should've kept in touch more," Rinoa replied, placing a hand on Selphie's shoulder.

"Meh, it's okay. Anyway, what class do you have now? Need any help finding it?"

Rinoa handed Selphie her timetable and watched as the girl looked over it.

"Cool, we have a few classes together, actually you've got a few classes with all of my friends."

"Cool," Rinoa replied, unsure whether she should be excited or not. She was excited about having classes but Selphie, but she didn't know her friends and wasn't sure what they were like.

"I take it you have no idea where your home room is?" Selphie asked as she handed Rinoa her timetable.

"Not a clue, um, would you be able to help me find where I'm going? This whole layout is way different to my last school."

"Sure sweetie, don't worry it took me a while to get used to this place too, so don't feel too bad about it," Selphie said as she helped Rinoa pick her books up before grabbing her hand and leading her too her next class.

As it was Rinoa hadn't been that far away from where she needed to go, and thanked Selphie for her help, agreeing to meet up after class before Selphie headed for her own classroom.

Taking a deep breath, she entered the room just as the bell rang. The teacher, an old crabby looking women with curly snow white hair, looked up at her with a look that screamed 'who the hell are you and what are you doing here.'

Rinoa decided the best way to approach this situation was with confidence, and didn't want the other students in the room to sense her fear. That's what had happened when she first attended West Deling, and that had turned to shit very quickly.

She walked up to the teacher and handed her timetable over, explaining that she was new and that she'd been assigned to this room.

"Fantastic, great of someone to tell me," the teacher groaned as she ran a hand through her hair, "I'm afraid there's only one seat left towards the back, please go sit down and keep quiet."

'How rude, I hope the rest of the teachers aren't like her,' Rinoa thought to herself as she hastily walked towards her seat and sat down.

Placing her books on her desk, she glanced around the room, noticing that their were a lot of preps in her home class. She watched as one of the girls applied make up using a compact mirror, as another one applied some lip gloss as she talked to one of her friends, her fake high pitched laugh sounding extremely loud in the small room.

Rinoa couldn't help but roll her eyes at the two girls, it was such typical prep behaviour. Patricia and the rest of her friends had been notorious for doing these same two things. Rinoa had never been a really preppy prep, sure she had acted all preppy when she was at St Patricks, she wasn't going to deny that, but she had found the whole applying make-up every five minutes and the high pitched laughing annoying and had avoided doing it whenever she could. Sighing, Rinoa went back to staring into space as she waited for the teacher to start talking.

The classroom door was suddenly flung open, crashing into the wall with a loud bang that drew everyone's attention. Rinoa looked over to see Squall standing at the door, his hands in his pockets as he chewed on some gum with a bored look on his face. He was partially in dress code, wearing a pair of jeans instead of the normal pants and black converse instead of the required black leather shoes. Looking at the pants all the prep boys in the room were wearing, which were made of the same material as the girls skirts, Rinoa couldn't blame him for not wanting to wear them, they did look quite ridiculous.

With a huff Squall sat in the seat that was closest to the door, which was also the last available seat in the room.

"Squall Leonhart, please remove your gum, you know its against school rules to have it," The teacher growled without even looking up at him, like she had some sort of ability to sense people that were breaking the rules.

Rinoa watched as Squall just sat their as he blew a bubble in defiance, a smirk on his face as he just gave the teacher a cheeky look.

The teacher grabbed the small waste bin from beside her desk and walked over to Squall, holding it out to him.

"Gum. Rubbish. Now," She said, pointing at the bin.

Squall just smirked as he blew another bubble, making the teacher a little crabbier than she already was.

"Do it now mister, or you will have detention."

"Nah, besides I can't go to detention anyway, I've got things to do," Squall replied, the smirk still on his face as he leaned back against the wall.

"I'm sure your social life isn't that important Mr Leonhart," the teacher snapped.

"Oh, but it is."

The teacher grimaced and lowered her head, obviously not wanting to get into an argument on the first day back.

"See me after class mister," the teacher whispered menacingly before returning to her desk and marking the roll.

Before Rinoa knew it, home group had ended and she was standing outside the room waiting for Selphie while vaguely listening to the roasting Squall was getting from the teacher back inside the room.

"Let me guess, Squall managed to piss Mrs Ferguson off on the first day? Man that's a new record for him," Selphie asked as she came up behind Rinoa.

"Yep, I swear the vein on the top of her head was about to burst," Rinoa giggle.

"Don't worry, Mrs Ferguson is nothing compared to your next teacher, She's actually one of the more timid ones."

Rinoa was about to say something when she heard the door open behind them. Both girls turned to see Squall standing there with a grin plastered on his face, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Man, what a bitch."

Squall then turned to Rinoa, looking at her with a 'what the hell are you doing here' look before a look of recognition came over him.

"Hey, you made it. So, how is it compared to your old school?"

"Yeah I made it, and its quite different to my old school, no one would have ever done that to a teacher on the first day," Rinoa replied, a smile spreading across her face.

"That's good," Squall replied before turning to Selphie, "ready to go?"

"Yep, come on Rinny," Selphie replied as she grabbed Rinoa's hand and they headed to their next class.

Rinoa couldn't help but notice the looks that were aimed in her direction as they made their way to the block of classrooms where her next class was located. She noticed a lot of the male students avoiding eye contact with Squall while staring lingeringly at Selphie. Vice versa for the girls they passed along the way. She also noticed a lot of the guys looking her up and down, which made her feel really uncomfortable.

"Why is everyone staring at us?" Rinoa whispered in Selphie's ear.

Squall, who had obviously heard her, scoffed before glaring at a group of boys, who glared right back as they went passed. Rinoa swore she heard a few of them mutter the words arsehole, prick and bitch as they passed by them.

"You'll find out soon enough Rinny," Selphie whispered back as they reached their allocated classroom before entering it.

* * *

During the course of the morning Rinoa had been approached by a lot of the preppy students, wondering how she knew Selphie and Squall. She had also found out the reason why everyone had been staring at them.

According to the preppy students, Squall and his friends weren't very well liked among the student population. They were considered outcasts among the majority of the students and were generally anti mixing, staying away from anyone they didn't consider their friends.

It was now lunch time, and Selphie had invited her to sit with her and her friends. After what she had heard through out the morning from the other students she wasn't sure whether she wanted to or not. She knew Selphie was okay, and Squall seemed alright, she just didn't know what her other friends were like. She had also been invited to sit with a group of girls who had been in her last class, which she was tempted to do, but she also didn't want to upset Selphie.

Exiting the canteen, she spotted Selphie sitting under a tree on the other side of the quad area, waving her arm wildly in the air as she tried getting Rinoa's attention.

Smiling and shaking her head, Rinoa decided to give Selphie the benefit of the doubt. She couldn't exactly judge people if she had never met them, and was curious as to what her other friends were like.

"Hey girl," Selphie greeted as Rinoa sat down.

"Guys, this is Rinoa," Selphie said as she turned to the rest of her friends, "Rinny, that's Quistis, Seifer, Zell and of course you already know Squall," Selphie said as she pointed to each of her friends.

Rinoa looked at each of them, finding them to be quite normal looking compared to how the preps had described them to her.

Quistis was a tall looking blonde girl with blue eyes and her hair done up in a bun. She also wore a pair of steel framed glasses which made her look really smart and sophisticated.

She recognized Seifer immediately as the boy that had been making paper airplanes in the office that morning, and noticed that he still wore the same smirk on his face like it was a permanent fixture on his face. He had his arm wrapped around Quistis's waist and Rinoa could tell just by looking at them that they were in love and would most likely be together forever, something that was quite rare in a high school couple.

The other blonde boy, Zell, had his hair spiked up at the front and had a tattoo running down the left side of his face which actually looked quite cool. His blue eyes seemed to sparkle with child like inquisitiveness, which gave Rinoa the impression that he was outgoing and a lot of fun, much like the vibe Selphie had given off when she had first met her.

"So Rinoa, what brings you to a shit hole like Balamb?" Quistis asked as she started eating her lunch.

"My mum got offered a job at the local hospital," Rinoa replied.

She had expected to get bombarded with questions after that but it never happened. Quistis had just nodded in reply before everyone had moved on to talk about other things, involving Rinoa every chance they got. They talked about what plans they had for the weekend, which had eventually moved onto other things like skateboarding, which Rinoa had been embarrassed to admit she had never done before, but her spirits had soon been lifted after Selphie offered to teach her. She listened to everyone talk about the newest boards and tricks they wanted to learn how to do, all the while having Selphie explain everything to her. The more she listened to the others the more excited she got about learning to do it, and hoped that she would be able to pick it up quickly.

It was approaching the end of lunch when the fire alarm went off and everyone was marshaled to the evacuation area, which happened to be the school oval, a very logical place in Rinoa's eyes.

They were all sitting around waiting for the teachers to check up on the alarm when a boy with auburn coloured hair approached them, the proud look on his face telling Rinoa that he just may have had something to do with them being out here.

"Hey Irvine, did you have to do that now? You could've chosen a better time, like during my algebra class," Quistis said as as the boy approached, making his smile grow even bigger.

"Sorry Quisty, beggars can't be choosers," he replied before spotting Rinoa, "and who is this pretty young lady?" He asked as he looked her up and down.

"Irvy you perve, get your mind out of the gutter," Selphie scolded him as she noticed the way he was looking at Rinoa, "This is Rinoa, she's new here, so you better not scare her off with your perverted mind."

"Pleased to meet you Rinoa," Irvine said as he took her and and planted a kiss on it, making Rinoa feel a little weird and creeped out.

'Does he do this with every new girl he meets?' She wondered as he let go of her hand.

"Don't worry Rinoa, he does it with every new girl he meets, you'll get used to it eventually," Selphie said as if she had read her mind.

Rinoa was about to respond when she heard someone behind them clear their throat. They both turned around to see Squall looking at them.

"I know you two would love nothing more then to chat the day away catching up, but I would rather not be in this prison any longer then necessary."

"Fuck yeah, what's the plan for the rest of the afternoon?" Zell asked as the teachers announced that the fire alarm had been checked and cleared, resulting in the rest of the students meandering slowly back to classes which would start in a couple of minutes.

"I don't know about you guys but I feel like grinding a few rails down the skate park, perfect way to end the first day of the school year in my opinion," Seifer announced, getting nods of agreement from everyone.

"Okay it's decided, we'll all go home get changed and meet up at the skate park in roughly half an hour," Squall declared before turning and making his way towards the carpark.

Rinoa watched as everyone made their way to the car park, unsure of whether she wanted to commit truancy on her first day at her new school. She had never skipped class and didn't really want to start, but the thought of having people to hang out with was making her consider it.

"Rinny, you coming?" Selphie asked as she turned and looked back at her.

"I don't know, won't we get into trouble for leaving school early?"

"Nah, we do this all the time, you won't get caught, trust me," Selphie replied as she walked over and grabbed Rinoa's hand, giving it a light squeeze as she smiled at her.

"Thanks Selph,"

"No worries, besides It'll give me an opportunity to start to teach you the basics."

Rinoa smiled as she nodded her head, offering little resistance as Selphie dragged her through the school grounds, trying her best to ignore the little voice in the back of her mind that was telling her that it was a bad idea to go along with it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Rinoa sighed in relief as she pulled up outside her house in Selphie's yellow beat up old corolla, noting that her mums car wasn't in the driveway. Her mum not being home meant that she wouldn't get in trouble for skipping school, unless she rocked up while she was inside, which meant they had to hurry.

Slamming the car door, she hurried down the cement path to the front door before unlocking it and heading inside. She made her way up the stairs and entered her room, heading straight for her wardrobe.

"What should I wear Selph? Do I want something form fitting or baggy?" Rinoa asked as she sifted through her clothing.

"Up to you, the guys usually wear baggy pants, but Quistis and I usually wear skinny jeans, all depends what you feel comfortable in," Selphie replied as she placed her bag on the bed before pulling out some clothes.

"Okay, I think this should do," Rinoa said as she pulled out a pair of black skinny jeans and a blue v-neck t-shirt, turning around so Selphie could see them.

"It'll do."

After quickly getting changed, Rinoa exchanged her glasses for her contacts before both girls made their way back downstairs. Rinoa placed a hand on the doorknob and was about to pull the door open when she heard the unmistakable sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

"Shit, my mums home," She hissed, looking around the room frantically for an exit strategy.

"Can we get out the back door and head around the side of the house?"

"Yeah, this way," Rinoa replied, grabbing Selphie by the hand.

Making their way into the laundry, Rinoa slowly undid the lock before pushing the door open, closing it slowly after they had gone through.

They slowly made their way through the side gate, careful not to let it crash closed before making their way to Selphie's car. Once inside, both girls looked at each other before they burst out laughing.

"Man...that was...close. You think she heard us?" Selphie managed between fits of laughter.

"No...don't think so...and yeah that was close...mum would've killed me if she'd caught us skipping school," Rinoa replied between fits of laughter.

"Yeah, well lets get going before she decides to look out the front and sees us sitting here," Selphie said as she gunned the engine, putting it into gear before taking off down the street.

* * *

Rinoa winced as she watched Zell attempt a hand plant for like the sixth time, watching as his arm failed to support his weight and her impacted with the concrete floor of the half pipe.

She listened to the others give him shit as they went over to help him up before turning back to Selphie, who was rolling around on the floor laughing her head off at Zell.

Rinoa found herself giggling a bit as she shook her head, wishing to herself that he would just give up trying to do it. They had been at the skate park for a good half an hour and had watched every attempt Zell had made at doing the trick, his attempts getting worse the more he tried to do it.

"Oh man, I wish he would just give up on it, poor thing's gonna end up hurting himself if he keeps going," Selphie said as she got up off the ground and turned to Rinoa.

"I agree," Rinoa agreed as she calmed herself down before turning back to Selphie.

"Okay, you ready to do this?" Selphie asked as held her hands out to Rinoa.

"As ready as I'll ever be" Rinoa replied as she grabbed Selphie's hands and stepped onto the board at her feet, steadying herself as it moved slightly under her feet.

"Okay, first thing we are going to do is find out which stance you are, which will involve me pushing you a little bit and seeing which foot you put down first okay."

Rinoa just nodded as she concentrated on staying on the board. She felt shit scared at this point in time, mostly because she didn't want to fall off and hurt herself.

"Hey, look at me," Selphie said, placing a hand under Rinoa's chin, lifting her head up so she could look her in the eyes, "It's okay to be scared, I was when I first started. Also don't be embarrassed if you fall, everyone does it when their learning, okay."

"Okay," Rinoa squeaked, nodding her head.

"Okay, here we go," Selphie said as she stepped behind Rinoa and pushed her lightly.

Rinoa wobbled slightly as she felt the board roll along the concrete path that circled the half pipe, placing her right foot on the ground as she slowed down to the point that she was barely moving.

She picked the board up and started walking back towards Selphie, noticing the small smirk on her face.

"Okay, what's with the smirk?"

"Oh, nothing. You ride goofy by the way."

"What? Am I not doing it right?" Rinoa asked, unsure of what Selphie meant by riding goofy.

"No, no, it's your riding stance, there's two types, standard and goofy. Standard you stop with your left foot, goofy you stop with your right. Standards the most common one, I only know one other person who rides goofy."

"Oh, Who?"

"Squall," Selphie said, beaming.

"What about me?" Squall said as he came up behind them.

"Oh, I'm just explaining the two stances to Rinoa, She rides goofy like you."

"oh, okay," Squall replied as he walked past them, stopping a few feet away as he pulled his cigarette packet out of his pocket, placing one between his lips before lighting it and putting the packet back in his pocket.

Rinoa wrinkled her nose at Squall as she watched him take a drag from his cigarette before turning back to Selphie, wondering how he could do that to himself. She had never tried smoking, but a few of her friends at St Patricks had done it and she could still remember the putrid smell that wafted from their clothing after they had just had one.

Selphie grabbed Rinoa's board and placed it on the grass next to the path, pointing for her to get on it.

Using Selphie for support again, she hoped on, not wobbling this time as the board couldn't go anywhere.

"Okay, doing this on the grass is to allow you to get used to the feel of the board, it'll allow you to become comfortable with your stance," Selphie explained as she let go of Rinoa to allow her to balance on her own.

"Since you ride goofy the foot you stop with will need to be at the front of the board, since its usually the most comfortable way to ride," Selphie explained, watching as Rinoa adjusted her footing to the way Selphie told her to.

"Good, now when your ready trying balancing on the back wheels to get used to the feel of the board when your stopping."

She watched as Rinoa did so, nearly losing balance and falling off in the process.

"It's okay sweetie, it'll get easier the more you practice," Selphie said as she helped Rinoa steady herself as she got off the board.

Hey Selphie, I think Zell's gonna attempt a hand plant again, you may wanna go try talk him out of it," Squall said as he finished off his cigarette and made his way over to them.

"Damn boy's gonna hurt himself," Selphie muttered before turning to Squall, "Squall, can you help Rinoa while I'm gone?"

"Yeah, off ya go."

"Thanks," She replied before making her way over to the half pipe where Zell was readying himself.

Rinoa watched Selphie head off to the half pipe, a thought suddenly popping into her head.

'Are they together?

"Hey Squall, Are Zell and Selphie an item?" She asked, turning to him.

"Yeah, they've been together for about a year, why?"

" Well I've just never seen the two of them show any affection to each other in public, and she seems to pay him out a lot."

"They tend to keep that sort of thing behind closed doors. They will show the odd sign of affection every now and again, but most of the time they just keep it to themselves. Anyway, you think your confident enough to go back and forth between the two park benches just over there?" Squall asked as he pointed to the two benches a few meters away, obviously wanting to get away from the subject of Selphie and Zell.

"Yeah, I think so," Rinoa replied as she picked the board up and carried it over to the benches before placing it on the path.

Rinoa tried hoping on but the board kept on getting away on her.

"You want a hand on?" Squall asked as he saw how much trouble she was having.

"Please, didn't think I would have this much trouble getting on."

"It's all good, everyone has the same problem when they first start," Squall said as he stood in front of her, "Put your hands on my shoulders."

Rinoa put her hands on his shoulders, feeling his hands on her waist, which caused her face to go red as she glanced up at him."

"Sorry, wasn't thinking," Squall said as he started letting go of her waist, noticing her cheeks had gone a bit red.

"No, its okay, it actually helps me balance," Rinoa replied as she grabbed his hands and placed them back on her waist.

She looked back up at Squall, noticing that his cheeks had gone red as well, and looked back down in embarrassment. She didn't know why she was feeling the way she was, Squall was only helping her with her balance. It wasn't like it was something to get all embarrassed about.

'Jeez Rinoa, get a grip on yourself. He's only helping you out, not like he's trying to get with you or anything.'

Brushing those thought aside, Rinoa cleared her throat and looked down, concentrating on her balance while avoiding glancing at Squall as to not embarrass herself again.

Once she felt she balanced well enough, she reached down and lightly removed Squalls hands and put her right foot down, pushing off and sending herself rolling across the concrete path.

She grabbed the park bench and leaned back, slowly turning the board around and pushing off again.

She did that a few more times with a few words of advice from Squall to help her fine tune her technique. She'd just pushed off again when someone yelled out to them, causing Rinoa to turn her head to look in the persons direction. What she hadn't countered on was the board veering to the left due to the change in her body position, and before she knew it she had collided with Squall, sending them both crashing to the ground.

Rinoa groaned as she lifted her head up, blinking a few times as she noticed the awkward position the two of them were in. Somehow, even with hitting Squall from the side, he had managed to turn during the fall and land on his back, taking the brunt of the fall, while she had somehow managed to fall on top of him and not fall off.

She felt something around her waist and looked to see that he had wrapped his arms around her to protect her during the fall, whether this had been intentional she had no way of knowing.

She looked back up, looking straight into his steel blue eyes. No matter how much she tried, she just couldn't look away, finding herself getting more lost in them the longer she looked into Squall's eyes.

Before she knew what she was doing, she reached out and brushed a bang away from his eyes, causing Squall to take a deep breath, his body shaking as he exhaled.

'Is he nervous? Why is he nervous?' Rinoa thought to herself as she noticed Squalls nervous body language.

'Surely he's been with a girl before, he seems like the type of guy that's been in a relationship before.'

The thought of Squall being nervous around her had suddenly sparked the curious side of her, and she found herself wanting to know why he was acting this way. Rinoa was about to ask him about it when she heard some loud clapping and cheering from behind them, causing both her and Squall to look over towards the half-pipe.

"Woo-hoo, way to go Rinny, tame that lion," Selphie yelled out to them, grinning ear to ear.

"Jeez Squall, didn't think you were the one to try jump a girl after just meeting her," Zell jeered.

Rinoa chuckled at her new friends antics, but stopped as she was pushed onto the ground. She looked up to see Squall getting to his feet before grabbing his board and taking off across the park towards the road.

'What was that about, did I do something wrong?' Rinoa asked herself as she watched him walk away, head down as he walked.

She heard the others make their way over to her, and before she knew it Selphie and Quistis were helping her to her feet.

"Oh come on Squall, we were only poking fun, come back we'll grind some more rails man!" Seifer yelled out to no avail as Squall kept on walking.

"Did I do something wrong?" Rinoa asked as she turned around to face everyone.

"No it wasn't you, it was us giving him crap that pissed him off," Irvine explained.

"Is he always nervous around the opposite sex? When we fell to the ground I noticed he acted quite nervous," Rinoa asked.

"He wasn't always like that. He'd had a girlfriend a few years ago, her name was Sarah, they'd been together for nearly two years and they were quite serious. She'd gone with her parents to their holiday home in Dollet during one of the school holiday periods and Squall had gone to see her for a few days to surprise her. He'd arrived to find her screwing one of the local boys in her bed, the same bed they'd had sex in for the first time. They broke up and he's never gotten close to a girl since," Quistis explained.

Rinoa's heart sank as she took in everything that Quistis had told her. She found it totally understandable that Squall had acted the way he had, she had felt that she could never be with another guy after finding out that Matt had cheated on her, but that had soon dissipated, which she put down to the fact that they had never slept together. She still felt that she needed some more time before getting into another relationship, but she knew that all she needed was time. Squall's situation was different, he and his girlfriend had slept together, they had been more serious and she had torn his heart out and ripped it to shreds. No wonder he felt like he couldn't get close to another girl.

"I think I better go see him, see if he's okay and make sure he's not angry with me," Rinoa stated, feeling like she had to apologize to Squall.

"You don't have to do that Rinny, I'm sure he forgives you," Selphie said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I know, I just want to make sure, okay," Rinoa replied as she gently removed Selphie's hand before taking off after Squall, hoping to reach him before he could drive away.

* * *

Squall absent mindfully kicked a stone that was on the footpath as he made his way to where his car was parked. He hadn't meant to act so cold towards Rinoa, it was just that his friends jeering had gotten to him and he had wanted to get away before he did or said something that he would later regret.

The subject of women was still a tender one for him, and he hated his friends giving him crap about him being in close proximity to one. It didn't happen all the time, which he was thankful for, they weren't that cold and heartless to do that to him all the time, but when it did happen it usually hit a sore spot.

He had thought he was getting better, but having Rinoa on top of him, even if it was entirely by accident, had made him extremely uncomfortable and he had felt the need to get away.

Grabbing his keys out of his pocket, he pushed the button to open the boot, dropping his board in before slamming it closed. Pushing the button to unlock the car, he opened the door and was about to hop in when he heard someone calling out to him.

He turned around to see Rinoa running towards him.

'What does she want?' Squall asked himself as he shut the car door and started walking towards her.

"Hey," Rinoa said as she stopped in front of him.

"What's up?"

"Did I upset you? I'm not quite sure what I did for you to be upset," Rinoa asked, acting as if she knew nothing about his situation so she didn't seem nosy.

"No, it's not you, it's me. I'm not that confident around women and I get quite nervous when I get into a situation like we did earlier," Squall explained.

"Yeah they told me something about your ex cheating on you, I'm sorry if you didn't want me to know yet, Quistis just came out with it when I asked them if I upset you."

Squall sighed as he shook his head, figuring that one of them would've opened their mouth. He just didn't expect it to be Quistis of all people.

"It's okay, you would've found out sooner or later, I just would've preferred later."

"Sorry."

A moment of silence fell between the two which made them feel even more awkward then they already were.

"Anyway, sorry for keeping you if you have to go anywhere, but I have to know if were still okay, you know, as friends?" Rinoa asked, shifting nervously from one foot to the other.

"Yeah we're okay."

Rinoa exhaled, unaware that she had been holding her breath before taking another breath, "That's good, anyway I'll let you get going, and I'll see you at school tomorrow," She said, giving him a small wave before turning around and slowly making her way back to the others.

"Hey Rinoa!" Squall called out after her, making her turn around.

"Yeah?" She asked, curious to what else he had to say.

"You know you ramble when your nervous," Squall said, a small smile spreading across his face.

Rinoa's mouth fell open slightly before a small smile spread across her face, "Shut up!" She exclaimed playfully before turning on her heel and making her way back to the others.

Squall chuckled lightly as he hoped into his car, shaking his head at Rinoa's antics.

"Maybe she won't be so bad after all," he muttered to himself as he gunned the engine and backed out of the parking space before taking off down the road.

* * *

A/N: Here's another chapter for you guys. Had a bit of trouble writing this one, felt like it took forever to write it. Anyway what did you think?


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**Lunch time the following day**

Rinoa hummed to herself as she exited the school canteen, carrying a couple of white paper bags containing a meat pie and a blueberry muffin as she made over to where the others were sitting. She had never tried a meat pie before, as they didn't have them in Galbadia, and she was quite curious as to what it tasted like.

She sat down between Selphie and Squall, not noticing the disgusted look she was getting from across the table as she pulled her food out.

Quistis patted Seifer on the shoulder, pointing to Rinoa's food as he turned to face her, his face turning slight green colour as his eyes rested upon Rinoa's food.

"Oh fuck no, I wouldn't touch that shit if I was you," Seifer warned, getting Rinoa's attention before she could bite into her pie.

She looked down at it with a puzzled look before looking up at Seifer, "Why, what's wrong with it?"

Squall sighed before turning to her, "About six months ago, a student brought a pie from the canteen, bit into it and found half a mouse among the meat."

A disgusted look spread across Rinoa's face as she looked down at the pie again before looking up, "What happened to the other half of it?"

Squall just gave her a look that said 'take one guess.'

"OH!" Rinoa exclaimed as she dropped the pie onto the paper bag and pushed it away, "How the fuck did they not pick it up?" She asked as she grabbed her muffin.

"Poor hygiene maybe, I don't know exactly why," Seifer remarked, pausing before continuing, "I suppose that's probably the worst I've heard coming out of there, Also saw one of the tuckshop ladies sneeze all over the muffin mixture when they were making them one morning, but hey, that's why I don't buy their shit."

Rinoa threw the muffin onto the table, grabbing the napkin she had grabbed from the canteen and proceeded to spit the mouthful she had taken into it, "Yuck, you know you could've told me before I had a chance to bite into it."

Seifer just chuckled as he moved over for Zell, who sat down before spotting the food on the table, jumping nearly ten feet in the air as he tried to get as far away from it as he possibly could.

"Nah, get that fucken shit off the table, I don't want to catch salmonella or something."

"Ya dick, you only catch that from uncooked chicken," Quistis remarked.

Selphie just rolled her eyes before grabbing the muffin and pie, casually throwing both of them over her shoulders, ignoring the people yelling at whoever threw the food as she grabbed an apple out of her bag and handed it to Rinoa, "I guess what were trying to get at is, don't trust the canteen food."

Rinoa smiled as she bit into the apple, and was about to say something when she saw a shadow fall over their table. Her, Selphie and Squall turned around as one to see Mrs Ferguson standing behind them, and from what Rinoa could see, she had been hit by the flying pie as their was pieces of meat stuck to the front of her shirt and her shoulders.

"Can I ask which one of you was responsible for the flying pie?" the teacher asked, looking at each person seated at the table.

Selphie rolled her eyes before sticking her hand up.

"Ms Tilmitt, I know you have done some silly things before, but throwing food at a teacher is a new low, even for you."

"What, so I'm in trouble for protesting now am I?!" Selphie exclaimed.

"And what exactly are you protesting about Ms Tilmitt?"

"How about how shitty the school food is. You couldn't pay me to eat that shit."

"I don't care what you think of the food, clean that mess up, NOW!"

Selphie glared at Mrs Ferguson, looking as if she wanted to get up and punch the woman. Rinoa hoped that she wouldn't, because it would mean a certain detention for the girl, or if the teacher was angry enough, a suspension.

Rinoa watched as Selphie's entire demeanor changed in the blink of an eye, a smile spreading from ear to ear as she got to her feet.

"You want this cleaned up? Okay," She said sweetly before walking over and picking the pie up off the ground...before towards them and shoving the remnants of it into the middle of Mrs Ferguson's back.

Rinoa's jaw dropped as cheers erupted from the people around them, some of them clapping as they laughed at the sight before them. Never, ever had she imagined that Selphie would do that when she knew she would get into trouble for it.

Selphie smiled sweetly at Mrs Ferguson, whose face was turning five different shades of red, and looked like she was about to explode.

"SELPHIE TILMITT! OFFICE, NOW!" She screamed, grabbing Selphie by the arm and dragging her off to the office to face whatever punishment she was going to receive.

"Man, I can't believe she just did that," Irvine said as he sat down at the table, having witnessed Selphie's display on his way over to them.

"Hey, you know Selphie, if she's gonna do something, she makes sure she does it right," Quistis chuckled.

Rinoa giggled as she looked in the direction Selphie had been dragged off in, hopping for her sake that her punishment wasn't going to be too severe.

* * *

**After School**

Rinoa hurried towards the car park, hoping to catch up with Selphie before going home. She hadn't seen her since the incident at lunch time, and had felt guilty about what had happened all afternoon.

She spotted everyone standing around Selphie's car and hurried towards them. Rinoa noticed that Selphie was no longer in uniform, and was instead wearing a yellow sun dress that went to just above her knees. This lead Rinoa to the conclusion that Selphie had been suspended, and she felt even more guilty about today.

"Selphie I am so sorry about lunch time, if I'd known Mrs Ferguson was going to be that harsh on you then I..."

"Uh uh, no need to apologize," Selphie cut in, holding up a hand as she smiled, "Don't worry about it."

"But she suspended you."

"Pfft, bitch couldn't be bothered suspending me, besides most of the teachers have given up suspending us," Selphie replied, patting Rinoa on the shoulder.

"So how come your not in uniform if you haven't been suspended?" Rinoa asked.

"I couldn't be stuffed going to my last two periods, so I went home," Selphie explained

Rinoa inwardly sighed, thankful that her friends hadn't been suspended, and she was also thankful that Selphie didn't blame her for it. The way she had just brushed it off as if it was nothing had Rinoa wondering how often this sort of thing occurred.

"So what's on the agenda tonight?" Zell inquired, doing a complete one-eighty on the subject, obviously not wanting to have to hear about it anymore.

Today was friday, so their was no doubt that something was going to be happening tonight. Rinoa hoped that they were going to involve her in whatever they were planning to do. Her mum had her first night shift tonight, and she didn't really want to be stuck at home by herself in the new house.

She was about to ask whether she could come along when she heard a loud familiar tune which nearly sent her jumping out of her skin. She reached into her pocket and pulled her phone out, seeing that she had one new text message from Patricia.

Rinoa smiled as she read over the text message, glad that she hadn't been forgotten about already.

"Is that your boyfriend Rinny?" Selphie asked in a teasing voice as she lightly poked her in the ribs, making Rinoa squirm a little.

"No, don't have one of those anymore. Remember Patricia?"

"Oh, yeah, how is she?" Selphie asked excitedly. Her and Patricia had gotten along well during Selphie's stay in Deling, and had been just as upset as Rinoa had been when she had to go home.

"She's good, still the same as she was all those years ago," Rinoa replied as she shoved her phone back into her pocket.

Sorry to interrupt you ladies," Seifer interrupted as he placed his hands between the two of them and pushing them apart slightly, over hearing the two of them talking non-stop, "We currently have a dilemma that needs solving and it's not going to get solved with you two blabbering on."

Rinoa stuck her tongue out at him as Quistis swatted him around the back of the head before telling him off for being rude, to which Seifer just did his trademark smirk as he rubbed the back of his head.

Squall smirked as he watched on, glancing at Zell and Irvine, who were also watching the display in front of them. Rinoa was certainly different to other girls that had tried to join their group before. She seemed to get along with everyone even though she had known them all for just over a day, and Squall hoped that she wouldn't be another one of those girls that ran off to the preps after a few days of being around them.

Squall cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. Even though he had enjoyed watching Seifer get put into his place, he had been right about one thing, they needed to decide on what they were going to be doing tonight. They had always done something on a Friday, and considered it a waste if they didn't do anything.

"Seifer's right, we need to decide on what to do for the evening. It's the first weekend of the school year, but it's also Rinoa's first time out with us. So anyone have any ideas?" He asked, looking at each of his friends.

"Cruising the town," Irvine suggested.

"roof rattling," Selphie suggested.

"How about a few drinks over a fire in the Balamb hills, we haven't done that for a while," Quistis suggested.

"That is a good idea, but what are we going to do prior to that? I mean that's always something we've done to celebrate doing something big," Squall replied.

Everyone looked at each other with blank looks, unable to come up with anything between them. Squall sighed and looked at the ground. They usually never had this problem, they always knew what to do with their weekends. But since it was Rinoa's first time out with them he wanted to make it special for her, as no doubt the rest of them did as well.

"Okay, I'll do some brainstorming while I'm at work and see what I can come up with," Squall said as he dropped his board on the ground.

"How are ya gonna manage to do that, isn't Friday your busy night?" Irvine asked.

"Yeah, but we always work next to each other, so no doubt we'll get a chance to talk it over," Zell replied, stepping onto his board, "Anyway, we're gonna be late if we don't get going, catch ya's later," Zell said as he and Squall pushed off, making their way out of the student car park onto the footpath.

"Alright guys, I'll catch ya's later, I got shit to do this afternoon," Irvine said as he turned and made his way towards his ute.

"Like what? Scoring with one of the preppy girls again?" Seifer yelled after him.

"Maybe, that's for me to know and you to find out," Irvine replied with a big smile on his face before getting into his ute.

"Alright, see ya's later, let's get going Rinny," Selphie said as she got in the car, Rinoa hoping into the passenger seat before buckling herself in.

"Has Irvine always been like that?"

"What do you mean?" Selphie asked as she gunned the engine.

"So...I don't know...slutty," Rinoa replied, unable to find just the right words to describe Irvine.

"Yeah, guess he has been. I dated him for about six months when I first moved here and he had a wandering eye back then too. I guess it's just the way he is, doesn't want to settle down with a single girl, only wants to see how many he can score with in the shortest amount of time."

Rinoa nodded, "So any idea what we could be doing tonight?" She asked as Selphie navigated her way out of the car park.

"Nah, no clue, but don't worry Rin, if I know the guys they'll come up with something good," Selphie replied as she turned onto the road and gunned it down the road.

* * *

A/N: A shorter chapter this time round. I know nothing really happened in this chapter, more of a filler chapter then anything. The beginning was based off of a story I heard when I was in high school. It was the reason I always took my own after my first year of high school. Anyway, what did you think?


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Squall pushed his board down the road, zoning in and out of Zell's rambling as they made their way home. He was currently thinking about what they could do tonight. It was the first weekend after school going back, and he wanted to make it a big night, especially since Rinoa would be joining them on their escapade.

He had been mulling over it since lunch time. Selphie's little act had spurred him into a thought frenzy, his mind had been turning over since then and he hadn't had any luck so far. He wanted to make it fun, but he didn't want to make it too extreme since he didn't want to scare her off.

Rinoa. Squall's mind immediately turned to her as the thought of her popped into his head. She was certainly different to any other girl of her caliber. She had no doubt been a prep at her old school, that much had been obvious the first time he had met her. Although from what he had heard from Selphie she had been moved to another school and hadn't fitted in, which meant she would've seen what preps were like from an outsiders viewpoint, which would no doubt work in their favour.

There was something else about her that Squall could put his finger on. Whenever he was around her he felt a need to look after her and protect. He doubted it was attraction, he had seen girls way prettier than her, and had been with a few that would leave her for dead in the looks department. It didn't mean she wasn't attractive, hell he wouldn't say no to her if she did happen to ask to get together. He didn't know what it was, she just seemed to have this affect on him that he had never felt before.

At some point while being deep in thought, Squall had lost awareness of his surroundings, and didn't hear Zell's warning or see the car coming out of the driveway till it was too late. He tried swerving at the last minute, but to no avail as he made contact with the car, sliding across the bonnet and hitting the ground face first.

"Oi, watch it kid!" The driver yelled out the window before speeding out of the driveway and down the road.

"You right bro?" Zell asked, offering Squall a hand up before handing him his board.

Squall was about to say something back when he heard someone tooting their horn. He and Zell both looked, watching as Selphie and Rinoa drove past, both girls looking like they were in hysterics as they waved at the boys.

"Great, you know everyone is going to know about this within the hour don't you," Squall said as he turned away from the road.

"Yeah, you know Selphie and her big mouth.

Squall didn't say anything as he dropped his board on the ground before hoping on and pushing off, wanting to get home before anything else went wrong.

* * *

"So, what do you think of Squall?" Selphie asked, a small smile spreading across her face as she looked at Rinoa.

"He's nice, why?" Rinoa replied, oblivious to what Selphie was getting at.

"So, you like him? Quite the looker isn't he."

"Yeah, I like him...Hey!" Rinoa exclaimed, catching on to what Selphie was getting at.

"So the truth comes out. Damn, wait till everyone hears that the new girl has a thing for Squall," Selphie teased as they pulled out of the school and started the journey home.

"Sorry to burst your bubble Selph, but I don't like him like that. Besides I just broke up with my boyfriend and I don't want to get into another relationship just yet," Rinoa replied as she looked out the window.

"Says the girl who got all hot and bothered when she collided with Squall and fell on top of him at the skate park yesterday, then chasing after him when he storms off. Oh I am going to have fun setting you two up, oh the possibilities," Selphie replied, rubbing her hands together with glee.

"It wasn't like that Selphie, it was accident. And no, you're setting me up with anyone. If anything is going to happen, which I highly doubt, it'll be on my own accord, got it."

"Pfft! whatever you say girl, you know deep down you want him," Selphie chuckled.

Rinoa just sighed as she continued looking out the window, watching the two boys that were skateboarding down the road just up ahead. The one at the front looked to be deep in thought, especially since he wasn't stopping for the car that was coming out of the driveway just in front of them.

"Hey, isn't that Squall and Zell?" Selphie asked as she spotted the two boys.

Just as she said that, Squall hit the car exiting the driveway ahead, sliding across the bonnet and hitting the ground.

"Oh Jesus, Selphie we have to stop and see if he's alright," Rinoa said, sounding worried.

Selphie on the other hand, started laughing hysterically, slapping the steering wheel as she did.

Rinoa looked at Selphie in shock, wondering if she cared about her friend at all. What surprised her next was the fact that she too was laughing.

She knew that she shouldn't be laughing at what just happened, but she did see the funny side of it, and found herself reaching over and tooting the horn as her and Selphie waved at the two boys, who looked less then impressed with them as they drove past.

"Damn that was funny!" Selphie exclaimed before another fit of laughter rocked her body.

"Hell yeah it was!" Rinoa agreed, finding Selphie's laughter contagious as she too began laughing again.

* * *

A few minutes later after finally calming down, they arrived in front of Rinoa's house. Rinoa hoped out and thanked Selphie for the lift before watching her take off down the street.

Heading inside, she kicked her shoes off by the front door before making her way into the kitchen. She found a note from her mum on the counter next to some a couple of tins of food, telling her that her mum had gone to do a proper grocery shop and that the internet was connected. The note also mentioned that her mum had brought a puppy today and that Rinoa had to feed it the food she had brought.

A puppy?

At that moment Rinoa heard some scratching at the back door, followed by a long whining noise. Turning to face the glass sliding door that lead to the back deck, she saw a small Border-Collie puppy sitting on the back deck, whining and yipping as it got in its back legs and clawed at the door as it saw her.

"Aww, your a little cutie!" Rinoa exclaimed as she slid open the door before picking the puppy up and holding it to her chest. The puppy in turn jumped up and tried licking her face, making Rinoa giggle as its tongue touched her chin.

"Oh you are so adorable," Rinoa said as she headed back inside.

Making her way towards the stairs so she could head to her room to email her friends back in Deling, she stopped as she heard the sound of skateboards coming down the road.

'No doubt Squall and Zell, better go see how Squall is since I feel bad for laughing at him, even though it was funny.'

Pushing the front door open, she saw Squall and Zell go past her house, both boys hoping off their boards before heading to their respective houses.

'Well no time to apologize like the present,' Rinoa thought as she made her way over to the fence her property from Squall's.

Thankfully Squall noticed her approaching and headed towards the fence, saving her the embarrassment of having to call out to him to catch his attention.

"Hey, you feeling okay after your stack?" Rinoa asked before she was all the way to the fence.

"Yeah I'll be okay, just a few scratches, nothing to worry about."

"Sorry for laughing, just Selphie started laughing and it kinda became contagious."

"It's alright, I now see the funny side of it, and if I was in your shoes I would've been laughing too," Squall chuckled.

Rinoa nodded, unsure of what to say next. She hadn't known Squall that long and didn't really want to say the wrong thing around him and offend him.

"Cute puppy, what's her name?" Squall asked as he reached out and scratched the collie behind the ears, earning a few licks on his fingers .

"Oh, my mum just brought her today and I haven't thought of a name for her yet," Rinoa replied with a smile.

Squall smiled back and a bout of silence overtook them, neither of them really knowing what to say to each other.

"So what time are we meeting up tonight?" Rinoa asked, changing the subject to avoid the awkward silence lingering between them.

"Well Zell and I have to work until seven, so meet at my place about seven-thirty, no doubt everyone else will be there by then.

"Okay, cool," Rinoa replied, smiling vigorously. She was happy that everyone in the group had made her feel so welcome. She had been a bit optimistic about everyone except Selphie when she had first met them, considering her and Selphie had history, but after she had spent the last couple of days getting to know them she had overcome that and now felt extremely comfortable around everyone.

"Sweet," Squall said before pulling his phone out of his pocket, looking at it briefly before putting it back, "Well, I have to get ready for work, so I'll see you later then aye."

"Yeah, sure see you then," Rinoa said, giving him a wave before turning around and heading back inside.

Making her way up to her room, she sat on her bed before laying on her back across the bed. Holding the puppy up in the air she brought it closer to her until its nose touched her own. She giggled as the puppy licked her a few times before she sat up again, finally coming up with a name for the dog.

"Angelo, how do you like that name girl?" She asked, looking down at the puppy that was now sitting on her lap.

The dog yipped as it looked up at her, licking her face in response.

"I'll take that as a yes then, Angelo it is," She said as she cuddled the dog into her chest again.

* * *

A/N: A short one again. Angelo finally gets a mention. Hadn't actually thought of the dog until I was a few chapters in, so decided to come up with a way to introduce Rinoa's loyal four legged companion. Hopefully it was good enough for you guys. Anyway, what did you think? Sorry if it's a bit slow going, but I am slowly working into the story.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Squall tapped his fingers against his desk as he looked at the clock on his wall. It was nearing quarter to eight and Irvine still hadn't shown up, where as everyone else had shown up just after seven. He had developed a bad habit lately of turning up late when they had organised to do something, and it was starting to annoy everyone to no end.

"Fuck it, I say we start without him or we're never going to leave," Seifer remarked, slamming his hand into the wall, the banging noise echoing throughout the room, causing Squall to glare at him.

"You break my wall, you're fucking paying for it!" he growled.

"Pfft, yeah whatever, we all know you don't give a fuck," Seifer remarked, a smirk creeping across his face, earning him a slap across the back of the head from Quistis.

"Don't be rude," She scolded.

Rinoa bit her lip as she felt a giggle coming on, and covered her mouth in an attempt to hide it. Unfortunately it only made it more obvious that she was trying to hide it, and soon Zell and Selphie began giggling with her.

"Yous are all fucked," Seifer snarled as he looked between the three of them.

At that moment Squall's bedroom door swung open, everyone in the room looked over to see Irvine standing in the doorway, looking like he had been through a wrestling match and lost.

"And where the fuck have you been?" Seifer demanded.

"Well, I was on my way over when this hot looking chick fell into a storm drain, and since no one else was around I had to jump in and help her out, hence my untidy appearance," Irvine explained quickly, sounding if he said the whole sentence in one breath.

"Okay, then how do you explain the condom stuck to your arse?" Zell questioned, causing Irvine to look down before blushing profusely.

Squall just rolled his eyes, sighing as he ran a hand through his hair. He knew that Irvine could be full of shit at times, and it usually didn't bother him. The excuses he had used for his tardiness had become weaker as time went on, and Squall wished that he would take some time to think of some better excuses instead of using a weak one like he just had.

"What the fuck did I do in a past life to deserve this shit?" Squall groaned.

Rinoa couldn't help but giggle a little, trying to hide it with a cough so no one would notice. She was still new in the group and wasn't sure when they were being serious or playing around, and didn't want to offend any of them. Glancing around the room when she had finished coughing, she noticed Squall was standing in front of the group, and everyone else's eyes were on him. Not wanting to look the goose, she turned her attention to Squall, who cleared his throat before speaking.

"Firstly, I'd like to enquire if anyone has thought of something to do tonight?"

Everyone besides Zell shook their head. Rinoa noticed that Zell had a small smirk on his face, which made her a bit curious of what they had planned.

"Good, because Zell and I have."

Rinoa noticed the looks of pure delight that had come across everyone's faces as soon as the words had come out of Squall's mouth. She also noticed that Zell's smirk had grown into a full blown grin. The looks on everyone's faces had sparked some excitement within her, and she found herself anxious to know what they had planned for the night.

"Zell and I got talking, and we both agreed that we should make this night special, as a way of officially inducting Rinoa into the group."

Everyone nodded at this, agreeing that Rinoa's first Friday night out with them should be memorable.

"We figured we'd do something big. After listing off a few things we decided on doing a gatecrash, but then we thought, why not kick it up a notch," Squall explained.

"What do you have in mind?" Quistis asked, curious as to where Squall was going with this.

"Usually we go in and aim for the poor sod that's closest at the time, but I think we should do things differently this time. Go in and mingle, cause a bit of grieve between the preps and their partners, get them really worked up and pissed off before letting them have it. Zell tells me that you have something up your sleeve that you've been itching to try out, Irvine," Squall said, Looking in Irvine's direction.

"Oh yeah baby!" Irvine exclaimed, fist pumping the air.

"So basically, go in, a few of us act like total sluts and man whores, get the preps pissed off and go all out?" Selphie asked, sounding doubtful about the plan.

"Yeah, hopefully they don't get all pissy straight away and let us have some fun," Zell said, smiling as he placed an arm around Selphie's shoulders, giving her a light squeeze.

"Well I think it's fucking weak," Seifer sighed, earning a glare from Quistis.

"Well I think it's a fucking good idea!" Quistis exclaimed, getting to her feet, " I know we've gate crashed before, quite a few times actually. But this goes beyond what we normally do for one. We're supposed to stretch boundaries, push limits, and be typical teenagers causing mayhem. I agree with the plan because we have already done everything possible, over and over, now its time to re-invent things, re-create the legends we once created for ourselves. We haven't made an impact on this town in a while, and I believe it's about time we did it again."

"Quistis is right! We may be few, but when we do things, we go all out. The preps have been getting a bit cocky lately, and I believe we need to hit them hard to put them back in their place," Irvine agreed.

"Okay," Seifer sighed, "You got me. So how are we going to go about doing this without getting our arses absolutely kicked?"

"Well, here's what we had planned out," Squall started explaining, smiling as he noticed the excitement that had suddenly filled the room.

* * *

Squall pulled up on the side of the road behind Quistis and Irvine's cars, pulling the handbrake on before switching the car off.

"So mind explaining to me how this is different to one of your regular gatecrashes?" Rinoa asked from the passenger seat.

"It's simple. Normally we just show up uninvited, go in and punch on. This time however were actually invited because the stupid fucks used the school email system and mass emailed the whole year level. Also we're going to fuck with them a little before punching on."

"So no matter what it's gonna be an all out brawl?" Rinoa asked nervously.

"Hopefully not," Squall said as he turned to look at her, "You still okay to go through with it?"

"I'm not sure, I mean I wanna do my part and try and fit in with you guys, it's just that I've never been in a fist fight before."

"It's okay Rin, we'll look after you. I was the same the first time we crashed a party, trust me it gets easier after the first punch."

Rinoa gulped and nodded her head, still unsure if she wanted to go through with it.

"Hey, if at any time it gets too much for you, your free to walk away. None of us will think badly of you if you don't feel up for it yet. Heck, Selphie had hung out with us for a month before we took her for her first gatecrash, so don't think your obligated to go through with it after hanging around us for two days," Squall explained, placing a hand on her shoulder for reassurance.

Rinoa felt a smile creep across her face. She was glad that she had the support of everyone around her, it made her feel at ease, although she couldn't seem to shake the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I can leave anytime I want?" She enquired, looking him in the eyes.

"Yep, just give the word."

Rinoa turned to look out the window, blushing as soon as she saw Zell and Selphie a few feet away, arms wrapped around each other and blowing kisses at her. She heard Squall groan behind her, obviously having seen the display as well. She suspected that it was more then likely aimed at Squall more than herself, but she still couldn't help but feel the slightest bit embarrassed.

Taking a deep breath, Rinoa mulled over the current situation she was facing. Tonight they were going to take on the preps, the popular people that went out of their way to make the lives of everyone they considered below them a living hell. No matter what.

Rinoa had seen it happen to people, had stood by and watched it happen to others, and had even been a part of it when she had lived in Deling. But the tides had turned when she had moved schools and had become the victim. It was a part of her life that she had become become ashamed of, and she was going to try her best to make sure that her new friends would never find out about that part of her life.

"You ready?" Squall enquired, giving her shoulder a light squeeze.

Rinoa smiled, her mind made up as soon as she looked into Squall's eyes, "As ready as I'm gonna be."

Getting out of the car, Rinoa found herself being lunged on by Selphie, who was laughing at something Zell had said.

Rinoa found her laughter to be quite contagious and soon found herself laughing along with Selphie.

"Lets get ready to PAH-TAY!" Selphie exclaimed loudly into the near deserted street.

"YEAH! PARTY!" Irvine yelled, fist pumping the air.

Rinoa looked over at Irvine, feeling a bit confused. He had said that he had to change into his party clothes before leaving, but what he was wearing had her scratching her head.

Irvine was wearing a long trench coat, which went all the way to his ankles, a pair of leather boots poking out from under the coat. On top of his head sat a black Akubra, which Rinoa had to admit topped off the look quite well. It still left her confused about how he was supposed to dance in what he was wearing.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road," Seifer remarked before turning on his heel, following Squall and Zell who had already started making their way towards their destination.

Irvine smiled as he tipped his hat at Rinoa and Selphie before turning and following, causing the two girls to giggle lightly.

"Ready Rinny?" Selphie asked.

"Yeah," Rinoa replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

She felt something take hold of her hand, looking down she found a hand intertwined with her own. She looked to her left, seeing Selphie looking at her with a reassuring smile on her face.

Rinoa returned the smile, but it wasn't as convincing as she had hoped it would be. She felt someone grab her other hand, and looked to her right to see Quistis walking beside her, giving her hand an encouraging squeeze.

"You'll be fine, just stick with one of us," Quistis whispered.

Whether she liked it or not, they were on their way. She was excited and nervous at the same time. She replayed Quistis's words over and over in her head.

"You'll be fine, just stick with one if us."

Rinoa swallowed hard, finding herself praying that Quistis was right

and then felt another hand

* * *

A/N - Hey guys, sorry it's taking me so long to update, work and family are taking priority at the moment. I should be getting a few more chapters posted soon.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Approaching the house was like an endurance test for Rinoa, the feeling that was in the pit of her stomach earlier was still there and getting worse the closer they got. Her mind was racing, She didn't want to be here, yet she didn't want to miss out on what was coming.

They were a block away when Rinoa could finally hear the music clearly. It was loud and harsh, the way she remembered it being from when she had attended a few parties with Matt and Patricia.

Looking ahead, Rinoa could see a few people mingling around on the front lawn. From the looks of it the majority of them were making out, and a number of people were already passed out on the ground.

As they made their way across the front lawn, Rinoa watched as Seifer shoved one of the pashing couples out of the way, earning a yell of surprise and anger as they fell to the ground. Seifer just gave them the bird before making his way up the front steps and into the house.

They all stood in the entrance area of the house, looking around as they scoped the place out. There were a few people mingling inside, but the majority of people were mingling around in the backyard, which was where they were going to go.

"Alright, Irvine, grab a drink and wait until you get the signal. Zell, Selphie and Quistis, work your shit. Seifer, Rinoa and myself will keep watch until the time comes, got it?" Squall asked, looking over his shoulder at everyone.

His answer was a chorus of yes's before everyone went off to do what was needed of them, leaving Rinoa, Squall and Seifer where they stood. Rinoa watched as Seifer sauntered off into the next room, folding his arms and leaning against the wall.

"You wanna get a drink?" Squall asked, making her jump slightly.

"Sorry," he replied sincerely when he saw her flinch, taking a step back.

"No it's okay, I just wasn't expecting you to ask me if I wanted anything," Rinoa replied, smiling at him.

He smirked and slanted his head towards a table in the room to their left that had all sorts of drinks on it, indicating for her to follow him. As she made her way into the next room, looking out the double glass doors on the other side of the room to see Zell in the backyard with a skinny blonde girl all over him, a few guys off to the side that didn't look to pleased. She looked past them to see Selphie hitting on a tall guy with black spiky hair, placing both of her hands on his chest as he lent in close to whisper something in her ear.

'Wow, that was quick,' She thought to herself as she continued to follow Squall.

Grabbing a plastic cup, she reached for the spoon sitting in the bowl of punch, ready to pour herself a cup.

"I wouldn't touch that if I was you," Squall said, grabbing the spoon from her hand and placing it back in the bowl, handing her vodka cruiser can.

"Why?" Rinoa asked curiously.

"The preppy boys tend to spike the punch because they know all the girls drink it. Makes it easier for them to get laid when the girls don't have a clue what's happening because they're out of it," Squall explained, opening his can and taking a swig before leading her towards the double glass doors which led to a veranda overlooking the backyard.

"Oh! Thanks for that, wouldn't want that to happen," Rinoa muttered so only he could hear her

"Don't worry about it," Squall replied, waving her off as he opened the door, holding it open for her to step through.

They stood around, taking swigs from their drinks as they waited for the signal for Irvine to do his thing. Rinoa spotted Seifer standing just below and to the right of the veranda, looking as if he had his eye on something, or rather someone. On closer inspection, she saw Quistis in the middle of the yard next to the pool flirting rampantly with a guy with curly blonde hair, her face close to his as she talked to him. She thought that she could see the steam coming out of Seifer's ears as he stood there watching them.

"Don't let anything you see here fool you, Quistis would never cheat on Seifer, likewise Zell and Selphie," Squall remarked as he came up behind her.

"I was actually wondering about that, how they can they do this sort of thing so easily? You know, flirt with other people without feeling guilty?"

"Trust me, they feel guilty about it. Zell hates doing it because he feels like he's betraying Selphie. He does it because of the way their relationship is, they love each other immensely, but most importantly they trust each other to not take this sort of thing to far."

"What about Seifer and Quistis?" Rinoa asked, looking over at Seifer to see him clenching his fists, obviously ready to crack the guy Quistis was with.

"That, is a completely different story there..." Squall started before he stopped, noticing some movement of to his right. Rinoa turned around and watched as Zell stood in front of the MP3 player on the far side of the veranda, obviously scrolling through the songs to find something worth listening to other than shitty rap music.

'What the heck is he doing? Is this part of Irvine's plan?' He asked himself, realizing that he had absolutely no idea what the signal would be for Irvine to do his thing.

His question was answered when a fast techno song started playing, earning a few 'what the fucks' from the other room.

"The hell?" Rinoa asked from beside him.

"No idea," Squall replied, turning his head as he noticed Irvine walk past them, coming to a stand still at the railing before turning to face them.

Irvine tipped his hat, a huge grin on his face as he started bouncing on his feet to the music.

"Do you feel like partying?," He asked, earning a puzzled look from both Squall and Rinoa, "I feel like partying, in fact, I feel like partying right now" He continued, undoing the buttons on his trench coat.

Rinoa's jaw dropped as Irvine dropped his coat on the veranda's timber floor, leaving himself in nothing more then his hat, a g-string and his boots.

"Oh for the love of Hyne," Squall mumbled as Irvine raised his hands slightly into the air, dancing his way towards them.

"Hold that for me darling," he said, dropping his hat onto Rinoa's head before bouncing his way down the stairs and into the crowd.

"What the hell did we just witness?" Rinoa asked as she turned to face Squall, running a finger along the brim of Irvine's hat.

"I guess this was Irvine's new thing. I think we better follow, it's not gonna take long for shit to hit the fan with him dressed like that," Squall replied, grabbing Rinoa's hand and leading her off of the veranda, nodding at Seifer, indicating for him to follow.

"Hot stuff coming through!" Rinoa heard Irvine announce from up ahead, getting a glimpse of him grabbing a cap off of one guys head, doing circles around him as he placed the cap on his head and removed it, doing that a few times before hurling it into the pool, much to the displeasure of the caps owner.

She then watched as he pulled a blonde girl away from her boyfriend as they were pashing by the pool, ramming his tongue down her throat and kissing her passionately for a few seconds before the boyfriend and his friends were able to pull him off of her, leaving the girl looking dazed from the experience.

"Shit here we go!" Squall announced as he rushed forward to break up the scuffle, Rinoa and Seifer hot on his heels.

Squall grabbed one of the guys friends, pushing him into the crowd as Seifer grabbed the blondes boyfriend and threw him over the pool fence, water covering him as the guy fell into the pool with a big splash.

"What the fucks going on here?" A guy asked as he raced over to them, obviously the person that lived here, and he wasn't looking happy about the commotion.

"Just having a little fun man, what's wrong with that?" Squall said, his voice full of confidence.

"Don't act cute with me arsehole!" The boy yelled, "How the fuck did you fucks know about tonight? It was invite only."

"Well, I guess you guys are just so bright using the school email system to send out the invites. Someone forgot to turn the option to mass send the email to the whole year level off, hence we got the invite," Zell announced as he stepped up beside Rinoa, Selphie by his side. Rinoa looked to her right to see Quistis standing next to Seifer with what looked like a hickey on her neck.

"Fuck Sean, I told you it was a bad idea to use the school network for that shit," A boy yelled out from among the crowd.

"Fuck!" Sean yelled as he turned around, looking into the crowd behind him for a second before turning back to Squall and his gang, "Whatever, what's done is done. Now, I'm only going to give you one chance to get the fuck out of here, or else the seven of you are going to get seriously fucked up by the crowd behind me," Sean announced, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

"Nah, go get fucked!" Seifer replied, Chuckling.

Sean glared menacingly at Seifer as he walked up to him until he was mere inches away from him, the look in his eyes daring Seifer to fuck with him. Rinoa watched as Seifer just smirked, blowing Sean a kiss.

"When I tell you to do something, you make sure you fucking well do it!"

Rinoa continued to watch the exchange between the two boys, and didn't miss the look on Seifer's face change into the scariest look she had ever seen on a person's face. Not even her father had ever looked that scary when he got angry.

Seifer's smirk slowly turned into a look of absolute anger. The face of a madman emerged right in front of her, and it scared the shit out of her. Seifer exhaled sharply as he took a step forward, right before his right fist connected with Sean's face, sending him flying back into the crowd. It was a bone cracking blow that made a lot of people in the area cringe, and even more look away. That was what triggered the brawl that followed...one of the many that followed.

It was all out chaos as the jocks and preppy girls lunged forward from the large group in front of them, fists and open hands flying. Rinoa stood behind every as they took the hits, unsure of what to do. She'd never been in a situation like this before. From where she was she could see Selphie laying into some girls face. Selphie, without a doubt was absolutely mental.

She had some brunette girls hair in one hand, while she was beating her face to a pulp with an empty bottle she must've found lying on the ground. The blonde was screaming as she tried to claw Selphie off of her, to no avail.

Rinoa was broken from her daze when she felt someone hit her in the side of the head, nearly sending her face first into the ground. Grabbing the pool fence for support, she pulled herself back to her feet as she turned with a puzzled look to the girl that had hit her, a red headed girl with big boobs. Puzzlement suddenly turned to fury as Rinoa lunged at the girl in a flurry of open handed slaps. She let the girl have it, allowing the years of pent up anger and hurt to come forward as she belted the girl below her. She felt a clarity that she had never felt before and she lay blow after blow, it was as if nothing else in the world mattered and that the only thing that did hold any significant importance was hurting the girl below her.

"When I tell you to go get fucked, you go get fucked!" Rinoa heard Seifer yell from somewhere close by, waking her from her trance and causing her to look at the girl below her.

The girl didn't hesitate, wrapping her legs around Rinoa's waist before rolling on top of her and started giving her the same treatment she had been receiving a few seconds ago.

Rinoa tried her best to block every blow, but failed on quite a few of them. Having her head slammed into the ground, she spotted an empty beer bottle laying on the ground about a meter away from her. Grabbing the girl by the throat, she did her best to keep the hits at bay as she reached for the bottle. Her fingers grasped around the bottles neck, and holding it like a club she swung it at the girl, glass breaking as it connected with the girls left temple, sending her to the ground in a crumpled heap.

'Oops, sorry bitch,' Rinoa chuckled to herself as she dropped the remnants of the bottle on the ground before a hand appeared in front of her. Which on closer inspection she found to be none other than Squall's.

She grabbed his hand without hesitation, using him as leverage to pull herself to her feet. Time seemed to slow as she got to her feet, chaos and mayhem all around them, yet Squall had time to flash her a smile before launching himself at a boy who had foolishly been near him at the time.

Rinoa smiled back, silently thanking him for helping her. It was weird, even with absolute pandemonium going on around them, She felt safe when she was close to Squall, it even gave her courage to carry on with the fight.

Seeking out her next target, she was about to lunge at a brunette girl a few feet away from her when she heard yelling coming from inside the house, accompanied by some barking. That was when she noticed the red and blue flashes coming from the street, and next thing she knew half a dozen cops poured out of the house into the back yard, one of them holding a leash with a Galbadian Shepard, teeth bared as it ran in front of its handler towards the crowd teenagers.

Everyone seemed to pause for a few seconds, before everyone scrambled in a mad panic, not one person on the property wanting to spend the night in a cell.

People started pushing past Rinoa, engulfing one of the officers in a wall of human flesh as they forced there way out of the backyard. Rinoa looked around for any sign of the gang, unable to see any of them. Next thing she knew she felt someone grab her hand. She spun with a clenched fist, not wanting to get locked up, stopping as she saw the person that had grabbed her hand. It was Squall.

"Come on, follow me!" He yelled over the screaming and yelling of the other teenagers, pulling her towards the back of the yard.

Rinoa was puzzled as the reached the fence, thinking that they had no where to go. That was until Squall squatted and grabbed her foot, hurling her over the six foot high fence. Once he was over the fence, He grabbed her hand and guided her through numerous backyards, jumping fences and narrowly avoiding the dogs whose premises they were invading.

Squall's car finally came into view and Rinoa hoped in, watching as Squall slid across the bonnet before climbing in and gunning the engine, burning a fair amount of tread off his tyres as he took off at break neck speed.

Rinoa found herself wondering how often he had run from the cops while out doing this sort of thing. From what she had seen, he and the others were pretty skilled at escaping, and she was glad that Squall had taken the time to grab her before taking off.

She became slightly confused as Squall slowed the car down, and was about to ask why when Irvine suddenly dived in through the open back window, complete with his coat and hat.

After that there were no pit stops as they continued on to their rendezvous point where they had agreed to meet up afterwards. From what Rinoa had gathered it was out of town, which she thought was a good thing considering the cops would most likely be searching for them in town.

Winding her window down, Rinoa extended her arm out the widow, letting the wind through her hair as she looked up at the sky, a small smile spreading across her face.

Beside her, Squall was mulling over what had happened tonight. It hadn't quite gone how he had planned it in his head. He knew that it was going to bad before they even stepped onto the property, considering the vast number of preps attending Balamb High, but he hadn't expected an all out brawl like what had happened.

He absentmindedly looked over at Rinoa, fearing that she wouldn't want to hang out with them after tonight. She had surprised him tonight, handling herself quite well amidst the chaos. He could make out a cut on her bottom lip and a bruise starting to form on her right cheek. Her hair was also an absolute mess, looking a lot like a birds nest compared to what it was like earlier in the night.

"Man, What a party! Damn that was fun," Irvine remarked from the back seat as he slid his coat over his shoulders, the adrenaline obviously still pumping through his veins.

Squall chuckled in agreement, before concentrating back on the road as they passed a sign telling them they were leaving the city.

They sat in silence for a while before Squall reached for his buttons on his CD player, turning it up and tapping his fingers lightly on the steering wheel. Glancing in the rear view mirror, he saw Irvine staring out the window, obviously off in his own little world. Squall knew that he'd be worried about the others. All of their past gatecrashes had never gone that badly, but everyone was smart and Squall had no doubt in his mind that they all got out safely.

"So how far is this place?" Rinoa enquired, breaking the silence.

"Not far," Squall replied, pausing before continuing, "Not many people come out this way, and the cops never patrol this area so it's a pretty safe place for us all to meet up if we ever get separated.

Rinoa nodded before looking back at Irvine, "Do you know how the others got out?"

Irvine shook his head, glancing at her briefly before looking back out the window. Rinoa didn't push any further, turning back round in her seat and staring out the window, looking out at what scenery she could make out in the dark.

* * *

A/N - Hey guys, this chapter was something I had been looking forward to writing since starting this story. Irvine's little stunt came to me when I was watching Jackass recently and came upon one of the party boy sketch they always fit into the films. It took a few attempts to write that part, and I'm still not sure I got it perfect, but I couldn't be bothered doing another re-write. Anyway, what did you guys think?


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Ten**

Soon they were parked outside an old race track, Rinoa sat on the boot as they waited, watching Squall pace back and forth in front of her. Irvine was around the front of the car getting changed into a pair of his jeans and one of his shirts that he had found in Squall's boot.

Rinoa hugged her arms around herself as a gust of wind blew around them, wishing that she had put more then a skivvy on when she had left her house.

A few minutes later they spotted headlights coming down the road, and every tensed up, thinking the worst before recognizing the car as it got closer. It was Quistis's car.

"Whoo-hoo, YEAH! I canned that bitch Stacy!" Selphie laughed loudly as she hoped out of the car, making her way towards them with Quistis close behind her.

Selphie jumped up on the bonnet next to Rinoa, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She was still laughing and had a big smile on her face. Quistis leaned against the car beside them, remaining unusually quiet as she looked down the road, obviously worried about Seifer.

"Do you know what happened to Zell and Seifer?" Irvine asked, around the back of the car in his new attire.

"Yeah, They made it back to your ute, but I'm not sure if they got away or not," Quistis replied, glancing over at him.

Mere seconds after that the group could see a set of lights coming down the road, the loud thumping music could be heard over the distance between them and the car, as well as the revving of the V8 engine as whoever was driving it changed gears.

"Couldn't help it could they? they just had to blare the music," Irvine mused as the ute sped towards them, skidding sideways past them as whoever was driving slammed the breaks on and jerked the wheel, drifting past them before coming to a stop in front of Squall's car..

The passenger door opened and Zell stood up on the door frame, raising his arms in the air,"Fuck yeah, that was awesome. Irvine! What an act, man you have to do that again sometime."

Squall rolled his eyes at Zell's antics, a smirk spreading across his face. He was glad that everyone got out safely, not that it was much of a mission to get out of that particular property, they'd had harder ones to get out of in the past.

Rinoa looked over Zell as he made his way towards them, wrapping his arms around Selphie as she pulled him into a hug. He was sporting two black eyes that were starting to bruise. His hand were in pretty bad shape, his knuckles were bruised and bleeding, which meant he got into a decent fight.

Looking around, Rinoa made note of how everyone else looked. Irvine didn't look too bad, his nose was bleeding and had a few bruises starting to form on his arms and face. Seifer on the other hand looked like hell, he had a big purple bruise on the right side of his face, as well as smaller ones on his arms. He was also sporting a gash down the left side of his face.

Looking to her right, Rinoa noticed how much of a mess Selphie's hair was. She was also sporting a fat lip and a scratch on the left side of her face. Looking past her at Quistis, she noticed her hair was a lot worse then Selphie's. It was extremely knotted and surrounded her face in a way that would look horrible on any other female. Somehow though, Quistis still managed to maintain her beauty with an elegance that any other girl would kill for. She was sporting a cut lip and a few grazes on her cheeks and chin. She also had a small cut on her forehead that was seeping a little blood.

"Damn," Rinoa whispered.

"What's up?" Zell enquired, turning to face her.

"You guys look horrible," Rinoa chuckled.

"You should see yourself girl," Quistis remarked, walking back to her car, grabbing something before making her way back over to them.

Rinoa noticed that she was carrying a small compact mirror. Quistis held it out to her and she took it, opening it so she could see her reflection in the small mirror.

"Oh my god!" Rinoa exclaimed, placing a hand over her mouth as she stared at her bruised and battered self staring back at her.

"Told ya," Quistis remarked, chuckling.

Soon the adrenaline had worn off completely and everyone was in discussion on what to do next. It was just after nine on a Friday night and none of them wanted to call an early night, they were never home before midnight and didn't want to change that tonight. Everyone eventually agreed on a few drinks in the hills behind the city, which Rinoa was quite looking forward to.

Meanwhile, Quistis eyed Rinoa up and down, not really liking the way she dressed. She had heard from Selphie that Rinoa had had a hard time making friends over the last year and a half, but the way she dressed just screamed prep, which had lead Quistis to her first assumption that Rinoa had been a prep at her old school, which had been proven wrong.

Rinoa had on a pair of faded jeans and a sky blue skivvy. Quistis wasn't used to hanging out with anyone that dressed in light colours, except for Selphie when she wore the occasional bit of yellow, and it was starting to annoy her to no end. It was obvious by the way she dressed that she hadn't been a menace to society in her old town.

'We'll soon change that,' Quistis thought with a smirk.

Coughing loudly, she quickly got the attention of everyone.

"Okay, you boys can go grab the alcohol for the shindig up in the hills, me and Selphie are going back to Rinoa's house to give her a make over."

"Ooh, sounds like fun Quisty," Selphie exclaimed excitedly.

"Righto then, We'll go grab the booze, may even drop into Squall's for a few drinks before heading off," Seifer announced, the boys all nodding and voicing their agreement.

"Cool, we'll see you boys in about an hour or so," Quistis announced before grabbing Rinoa's hand, pulling her off the boot of Squall's car before making their way towards her car, Selphie hot on their heels.

Hoping in, Quistis waited until the two girls were strapped in before doing a massive burnout, leaving the boys in dirt and dust as they drove off the dirt area they had parked on and onto the road.

Rinoa looked over her shoulder out the back window, smiling as she saw the boys dive for cover as they were covered in crap flying at them from Quistis's back tyres. Sighing, she flopped back into her seat and got comfortable for the drive back into town, but the comfort didn't last long as the two girls up front started asking questions.

* * *

**One hour later**

Rinoa made a crab for the Jack Daniels perched on her desk, taking a swig from the half empty bottle, coughing as the liquid burned its way down her throat. Her, Quistis and Selphie had stopped at a bottle shop on the way home, grabbing a bottle of bourbon for the time they would be spending at her house.

Quistis rolled her eyes as her phone lit up and vibrated for what seemed like the fiftieth time in the last half hour. Seifer had text her non stop since they had left them at the race track. First it was asking what alcohol they were wanting, then it had turned into drunk texts as he started drinking at Squall's to pass the time until the girls finished what they were currently doing.

"How have you managed to go out with him for so long? The way he keeps texting you would drive me crazy," Selphie asked, grabbing the bottle as Rinoa passed it to her, taking a few rather large gulps from it.

"He has his good side, he just acts like a prick most of the time," Quistis laughed, shoving her phone back in her pocket.

"Speaking of relationships," Selphie suddenly exploded, looking at Quistis excitedly, "Guess whose getting all cozy with Squall, and only after knowing him for a few days, damn you work fast girl."

Rinoa felt the redness rising in her cheeks, and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she mentally tried to make it go away. She had just ended a two year relationship with a guy that had cheated on her, and she didn't feel like getting into another relationship at the moment. She knew that if she gave Selphie an opening she would hatch a plan to get the two of them together. Squall was a nice guy, and she couldn't deny that he was good looking, she just wasn't ready to start seeing someone again.

"Yeah I noticed that, what's going on there?" Quistis asked, turning to Rinoa.

"Nothings going on guys, he's just my neighbour," Rinoa replied, hoping that would be it.

"Uh huh, sure," Qiustis remarked playfully as her phone rang, excusing herself as she exited the room to answer it.

"He is so protective of her," Selphie giggled.

Rinoa nodded in agreement, hearing the loud thumping music coming from next door. It was obvious that the boys were having more than just a few, having heard some loud cheering a while ago. Rinoa was both excited and nervous about what they were going to be doing later. She knew that it was only a social gathering on the hillside, She had done similar things with her friends years ago, but that was the thing, it had been so long since she had been able to do these sorts of things that she was afraid she would do something to stuff it up.

"Love you too babe," Quistis concluded as she walked back into the room, dropping her phone into her bag before reaching for the bottle of Jack.

"The boys are starting to get impatient over there. I told them we'd be about half an hour."

"Okay, I'll go grab what clothes I can find at Zell's," Selphie said as she got to her feet, heading for the door.

"Can you grab whatever I've got over there as well? I'm bound to have something that'll fit Rin," Quistis asked over her shoulder.

"Yeah sure, back in a few minutes," Selphie replied as she disappeared down the hallway.

Rinoa was a bit shocked at what Quistis had said. She knew that both girls were in relationships, but she had never heard of a guy having a girls clothes in their room when they weren't in a relationship with them.

"Sorry, I'm probably gonna sound rude, but how come your clothes are at Zell's? I thought you were with Seifer," Rinoa asked.

"I am, it's just that we stay at each others houses a lot and we just all found it easier to have clothes at each of our houses, saves having to return home to grab clothes," Quistis explained.

Rinoa simply nodded, wondering how she hadn't seen it like that in the first place. She had known that nothing would be going on between them, as they both seemed like extremely trustworthy people. She guessed it was just her curiosity getting the better of her.

"It's not like I'm getting a bit on the side or anything. We know each others boundaries well enough so that nothing that shouldn't happen, happens.

"But say Selphie was at Seifers, they had a few drinks and something happened. Aren't you guys worried about something like that happening?"

"Rin, I believe a relationship is all about trust. If your unable to trust each other then why are you together? Get what I mean?

Quistis's words echoed through Rinoa's head. She suddenly came to the realization that their had never been any trust in her relationship with Matt. He had fretted over her finding someone else when she had moved to the western suburbs, just as she had worried about him doing the same when she had left. She had no way of knowing whether he had slept with Patricia behind her back, even though she doubted that Patricia would do that to her. But in saying that she knew of Patricia's reputation of sleeping with anyone and everyone, so she wasn't quite sure anymore.

In the end her fears had come to fruition, even though he had done it with someone completely different to whom she had suspected it of happening with. She had known that he would have girls swooning over him once she'd left, but she figured that he would've restrained himself from getting with another girl behind her back. Maybe it had been her fault for giving into his urges and sexual needs, but she had never felt like she was ready to take that step in their relationship, and now their relationship was over because of it.

"Look, Rin," Quistis said as she saw Rinoa stare off into space as if she was in deep thought, "Selphie told me about your relationship going south because your boyfriend cheated on you, and trust me, guys like that aren't worth it. You'll find someone who really loves you and will treat you right."

"Your right Quisty," Rinoa replied with a smile, just as Selphie burst into the room, her arms piled with clothes. Their was a hair straightener wedged under her right arm and a make up bag tuck under her left. Their was also a hair dryer and hair brush skillfully held in each hand as she entered the room.

Rinoa was amazed that a person if Selphie's size could carry so much and had to commend her on it.

Dumping all of the stuff on Rinoa's bed, Selphie turned to face them, a huge smile on her face.

"Girl, you'll be a woman soon," Selphie sang, causing Rinoa to chuckle.

* * *

A/N: Hey guys, another one done and dusted. I know nothing really happened in this chapter, but it is important to wrap up this part of the story. The next chapter will wrap it up then we'll be moving forward in time a little bit.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

After going through Rinoa's entire wardrobe, both Quistis and Selphie had been amazed by how much of her clothing could be saved. The majority of her jeans were able to be kept, but the majority of her tops were thrown into a pile on the floor, a pile they had mentally labelled do not keep. They had all been bright cheerful colours, which the two girls had found quite disturbing. It seemed that both girls owned an unlimited amount of clothes, hence they had given her some of theirs until Rinoa could get her wardrobe up to scratch.

Rinoa glanced at herself in the bathroom mirror, pulling at the bottom of the top the girls had chosen for her. They had given her a black long sleeve v-neck on which showed off a bit of cleavage, something she wasn't used to doing. She had always worn tops that hid her boobs, as she had never been confident enough to show them off because of their small size. Looking at herself in the mirror, she noticed that they now looked a bit bigger, she didn't know whether it was the top just making them look bigger or if it was something else, but didn't dwell on the fact.

On the bottom half of her body she was wearing a pair of dark blue denim jeans that hugged her figure quite nicely. On her feet were a pair of Black converse, the only thing that she could claim as being her own.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she made her way back into her room, spinning on the spot as she showed off her new outfit.

"Now that is sexy," Quistis said with approval.

"Damn, Rinny, I didn't realize how much of a rack you had," Selphie commented, wolf whistling.

"Come here," Quistis commanded, holding up a makeup container and brush.

Rinoa obediently obeyed, sitting on the bed in front of Quistis so she could apply her makeup.

As she picked up the eyeliner brush, Quistis looked over Rinoa's face, noticing how beautiful the girl actually was. She had a natural beauty about her, with soft features and a natural splendour making her look gorgeous without having to resort to using makeup. Quistis knew from experience that Rinoa could look even better with a little makeup, and that was what she planned to do.

"So tell me," Rinoa remarked as Quistis started applying the eyeliner, "How did all of you meet?"

Quistis glanced briefly at Selphie, getting a nod to proceed with an answer. It wasn't often that someone would ask about the origin of their friendship, and they were selective on who they gave that information to. Just from hanging out with Rinoa over the last few days, Quistis could tell that she was trustworthy and most likely wouldn't go around telling everyone after finding out.

"Well I moved here when I was seven, I met Squall, Zell and Seifer on my first day of school. Seifer had moved here the year before me and Squall and Zell the year before that. Irvine moved here with his mum from Galbadia when he was ten and as you know Selphie moved here two years ago," Quistis explained.

"Yeah, I was actually wondering about that," Rinoa commented, pausing for a second before continuing, "How long have Squall and Zell known each other? I've noticed that they seem very close, almost like brothers."

Quistis looked over at Selphie, asking with her eyes if she should tell Rinoa. She knew the subject was a touchy one with the boys, and it never got talked about. They had never actually had anyone ask about it before and Quistis was unsure how they should go about it.

"Should I tell her?"

"Yeah, may as well, she'll no doubt find out eventually," Selphie replied.

"Okay," Quistis said, turning back to Rinoa, "What we tell you now doesn't leave this room. It's not common knowledge outside of our group and it's best kept that way. Got it?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Alright then," Quistis said, taking a deep breath before continuing, "Squall and Zell were both born in Winhill, their dads served in the Galbadian Army together and their mums co-owned a bar, so their was no doubt that the two of them would end up as friends. When they were three, the boys dads were transferred to Timber as part of the the Embassy Protection Team, where they served for two years until a serious incident happened."

"Something happened in Timber didn't it?" Rinoa asked. She had heard bits and pieces about a revolt in Timber when she was younger. Nobody in Galbadia liked talking about it and the government had banned talking about it full stop. She had even tried getting information out of her dad when he was still alive, but that had been like trying to draw blood from a stone.

"Yeah," Quistis replied as a single tear rolled down her cheek. She could remember when she had first found out about it when she had met the two boys, it had upset her back then and it still upset her to think about it now.

"Do you want me to continue?" Selphie asked, placing an arm around Quistis's shoulders.

"Please," Quistis replied, wiping the teat away from her face.

"Okay," Selphie said, turning to face Rinoa, "When the boys were five, the embassy was stormed by a mass mob of armed citizens, who were sick and tired of being occupied and dictated by a foreign government. All of the diplomats and civilian staff were evacuated safely, but the majority of the troops stationed at the embassy had been killed in the fighting, the boys dads included. The resistance groups had been absolutely brutal in their treatment of the bodies of the dead soldiers, some of their bodies had even been stripped and dragged through the streets as war trophies."

Rinoa's eyes went wide as she brought a hand up to her mouth, absolutely shocked by what she had just heard.

"Oh my god, that's so sad."

"Yeah, it is," Selphie replied, wiping a stray tear from her face.

"So what happened next? obviously they didn't stay in Timber."

"No, the Galbadian government got word that resistance groups were hunting down and killing any Galbadian's that were still in Timber and evacuated every civilian and what soldiers were left as soon as they could. Both of their mums made a pact to stay together and watch out for each other, and they both decided to leave Galbadia to start a fresh, hence they ended up here in Balamb," Selphie explained.

"Wow, no wonder they're close," Rinoa commented.

"Yeah, They've been there for each other ever since they started school, and there friendship is still strong, as you've seen."

Rinoa nodded, and was about to ask something else when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in," she called out to whoever was on the other side.

The door swung open, revealing Squall leaning against the door frame, a small look of surprise on his face for a few seconds before he coughed, his face returning to its usual serious look.

"What's up?" Selphie asked, the smile on her face indicating that she had noticed the surprised look on his face.

"The boys just sent me over to see how long you guys were going to be, and also to ask if you wanted any alcohol. The guys have somehow managed to go through the majority of the alcohol I had stashed for tonight and now we need more."

"Ouch, I bet that's messy," Quistis remarked.

"Nah, they actually aren't that drunk, considering the amount of booze they've had."

"Okay, well we actually just finished, so we'll go get the guys and start heading up into the hills. You need any cash? Quistis asked, reaching for her handbag.

"Nah, I've got it," Squall replied, shooing her away from her bag.

"Righto, we'll see ya in a bit then," Quistis replied as she got onto her feet and started gathering her stuff.

Squall turned to leave without another word, but was stopped by Rinoa.

"Hey, do you think I could come for the ride? I don't know how much room there'll be with the others so I thought maybe I could go with you?" Rinoa asked, pushing herself off the bed.

"Yeah sure," Squall replied, ignoring the smirks coming from Selphie and Quistis as he turned and exited the room.

"You guys don't mind if I go with him do you?" Rinoa asked, turning to face the two girls.

"Not at all, go for it. We'll see you up there," both girls replied in unison.

Smiling, Rinoa grabbed her handbag off of her bed, not seeing the looks the two girls were giving each other as she her room, making her way downstairs to where Squall was waiting.

She found him standing outside in the front yard, cigarette hanging out of his mouth as he waited for her.

"Please tell me you're not going to do that in the car."

"My car, my rules," Squall remarked as he took another drag before making his way over to his car.

"Figured you'd say that," Rinoa replied as she followed him.

Smoke filled the car as Squall unlocked it and got in, exhaling smoke as he sat in the drivers seat. This caused Rinoa to cough and splutter as she got in, waving her arms in front of her face as she tried to clear the smoke from around her.

"Ah, to hell with it, I can have another one later," Squall mumbled as he threw the half smoked cancer stick onto the road as he pulled out of the driveway, buckling his seat belt up as he took off down the road.

* * *

"So where about's is an underage teen supposed to buy alcohol in this town?" Rinoa asked as they made their way through the CBD, heading towards the eastern beach side suburbs.

"There's a bottle shop near the airport that we normally go to. The owner has no qualms about selling alcohol to minors."

"Wouldn't the cops catch onto it?"

"Nah, this place doesn't have as many cops as other places the same size, and they tend to leave the pubs and bottle shops alone unless they really need to enter them."

Rinoa simply nodded, figuring that it made sense. Balamb seemed like a quiet, docile sort of place. It seemed that the only time anything really happened was when Squall and his friends were up to something.

Soon they were pulling up in front of a run down looking place with a sign above the door saying cheapest beer in town. Squall applied the handbrake and shut the engine off before turning to her.

"You want anything?"

"Your offering to buy me drinks?" Rinoa questioned, amazed that he would actually consider what she wanted after only knowing her for a few days.

"I only offer once."

"Midori Illusions please."

"Okay," Squall replied as he got out of the car, making his way into the shop.

He exited a few minutes later, a trolley laden with alcohol, everything from bourbon and cola to the illusions she had asked for. Quickly placing the large amount of alcohol into the boot, he returned the trolley inside before returning to the car.

"I didn't think you'd buy me so much," Rinoa commented as he buckled himself in and started the engine.

"It's not all for you, Selphie likes them too," Squall replied as he backed out of the parking space and took off down the road.

"Phew, for a moment there I thought I'd have to drink all of them tonight. That would've been messy," Rinoa chuckled.

"Nah, we wouldn't be that mean to ya."

Half an hour later they were making their way into the hills behind the city. As they made their way up, Rinoa looked out the window, amazed at the spectacular view of the city. She could see the city from one end to the other, it was a view that she could look at all day if given the chance.

Soon they pulled off the road onto a reasonably sized patch of dirt, where she noticed Irvine's ute and Quistis's car parked on the other side. Pulling up beside Quistis's car, Rinoa and Squall both exited the car, making their way around the back, transferring all of the booze onto the ground before Squall shut the boot, pushing a button on his key ring to lock his car, the beeping of the alarm system turning on sounding awfully loud in the surrounding darkness.

Rinoa bent down to pick up the box of illusions, stopping when she heard the very familiar sound of her ringtone going off. Sighing, she stood up straight as she reached into her pocket, looking at the screen as she pulled it out. She let out a small groan as she saw the number in the screen staring back at her, it was Matt's number, and she started racking her brain to why he would be calling her. She considered not answering it before her curiosity got the better of her. Looking at Squall, she mouthed an 'I'm sorry' at him before pushing the call button and putting the phone to her ear.

"Yes Matt, what do you want?" She asked, watching as Squall gave her a thumbs up before disappearing into the night, obviously wanting to give her some privacy.

"Jeez, is that all I get?"

"After what you did you should be counting yourself lucky that I'm even talking to you," Rinoa replied as she watched Squall disappear off into the darkness ahead of her.

"Oh, come on, I said I was sorry didn't I," Matt replied, sounding annoyed.

"That's not the point Matt, you betrayed my trust so why should I even believe that you're sorry?"

"Yeah well if you'd just given me what I wanted then we wouldn't be in this situation would we

"You know I could say the same about you not keeping your dick in your pants!" Rinoa spat.

"Well if you hadn't of moved away then maybe shit would've been different," Matt spat back.

"Oh, were gonna go down this road are we? You know I didn't have a choice in the matter! Anyway it wasn't like it was that far, it was only the other side of the city."

"What about the fact that your a frigid bitch!"

"Oh okay, so since I actually have morals compared to most girls that went to St Pats and didn't join the slut brigade your calling me frigid?" Rinoa questioned, Matt's words cutting deep into her soul. Everything he had said so far had slightly gnawed away at her very soul, but being blamed for their break up had cut deep.

"Yeah I am, It's not that hard to have sex you know. You just lie on ya back, spread your legs and bam, your getting screwed! You know with the track record Tish has for sleeping with anybody and everybody, I figured you'd be easy just like her."

"What are you saying?" Rinoa asked, shocked at what she had just heard, "Are you admitting to sleeping with Tish as well?"

"Yeah I am, It was quite a while ago but I figured since I'm on your shit list already, I figured another admission wouldn't hurt."

"I don't believe it," Rinoa admitted, absolutely shocked. She had never thought her best friend in the whole world would go behind her back and screw her boyfriend.

"Well you'd better get your head out of lala land because it happened, and I for one don't regret it. You know she does this thing with her..." Matt began before Rinoa mashed the call end button, not really wanting to hear the rest of what he had to say.

Leaning back against Squall's car, she totally forgot about the alarm as she slid down into a sitting position, the blaring sound of the alarm echoing through the darkness but she didn't care about it at the moment, not after what she had just been told. Placing her head in her hands as she felt her body start to shake, hiccuping loudly as a sob racked her body.

Rinoa could hear hurried footsteps coming towards her from the way Squall had gone, but didn't look up at whoever was coming in her direction. What she had just heard had hit her for six, shattered her confidence and ripped her heart into a hundred pieces. She didn't know whether it was true or not, but with Patricia's reputation, she suddenly found herself unable to put it past the girl.

She also knew that Matt could've been lying just to spite her, but the thought of Patricia screwing Matt behind her back still upset her immensely.

"Rinny, what's wrong?" Selphie asked from beside her as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder.

She had been so upset that she hadn't heard the sound of the alarm being turned off, or the fact that the footsteps had now stopped right in front of her.

She looked to her side to see that it was Selphie's hand resting on her shoulder. The petite girl giving her a warm reassuring smile as she squeezed her shoulder lightly.

"I...I...my best friend...my ex," Rinoa stammered as she struggled to get the words out between sobs.

She felt Sephie pull her into a hug, realizing that she didn't need to say anymore for her to understand what she had just found out. No doubt Squall had told her that she was on the phone.

Looking over Selphie's shoulder, she could see everyone else standing nearby, and suddenly felt quite embarrassed at being the center of attention. She knew they would've all come running because they would've thought the alarm going off meant someone was trying to steal one of their cars, but she couldn't help but hope that it was also because they were all worried about her as well.

Wiping her face, She let Selphie help her onto her feet, leaning back against Squall's car for support. She watched as Quistis approached her, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her close.

"It's okay Rin, we're all here for you if you need us," Quistis reassured her.

"Thank you," Rinoa squeaked.

"Okay, now that this situation is all sorted, how about we go back up to the nice warm fire, sink a few drinks and roast some marshmallows," Irvine suggested, most likely not meaning for it to sound as insensitive as it did.

"Yeah," Rinoa replied, nodding her head, "I could do with a drink after that."

Everyone chuckled and she felt Selphie wrap and arm around her shoulders, feeling another arm snake it's way around her waist. She looked towards the owner of the second arm to see Quistis smiling at her as both girls lead her through the dark up to where they had set up the fire.

Behind her she heard the boys say a few words between each other as Squall turned his alarm back on before following the girls up the hill.

* * *

A/N: Tough time for Rinny isn't it, poor girl. Had a hard time writing this chapter, especially the fight over the phone, still not sure whether it's right or not, but to hell with it. Anyway this part of the story is now done and dusted and we will be moving on from here. Anyway what did you guys think?


End file.
